CREW
Foredeck - Pam, Kathleen, Chris L, & Audrey
Main Sheet & Timing - Susan
Jib Sheets - Jay & Chris Browne
Tiller - Skipper Ron
That’s right, both Audrey and Chris B were back to sail on Circe for this last race. So we had a very full crew and a well manned foredeck.
WIND & JIB SELECTION
The wind was light out of the south east about 5 to 6 knots. As the race was a half hour earlier but we had crew arriving off the 5:15 we made an early call on the light #1 and rigged it at the mooring.
Guest appearances!
THE RACE
Course was a buoys to starboard triangle 4 x around with the start near the city off Red Path and the first mark up towards the eastern gap. The gybing mark was toward the centre of the bay creating a flattened elongated triangle. So despite our well manned foredeck it didn’t look like there would be any whisker pole work to keep them busy. Jay made the call that it would be shortened to 2 x around before it was finished. He was wrong.
All our usual competition was out except Kokoro. The wind was quite variable in strength and direction ranging from 4 to 9 knots so at times the light #1 was perfect and at time the new Black Magic would also have worked. But we stayed with the light sail. The wind must have shifted dramatically to the north after Graham set the line because by the time boats were starting it appeared you could not cross the line on Starboard tack and the committee boat end of the line was HUGELY favoured. As a result, our start was chaos.
We went for a port tack start at the committee boat as did Blue Streak. Veloce and Amelia opted for a starboard tack start right at the committee boat even though they could not clear the committee boat on starboard at that end and would have to tack. But the problem was they mistimed it and got there too early and had to sit luffing on the line right at the committee boat thus blocking our path. But we were a bit early too so we luffed up on port close to the committee boat but blocking Blue Streak to weather and behind. She must have tacked away as I lost track of her about then.
At the gun both Amelia and Veloce tacked over onto starboard and started to slowly move away. We tucked in right behind them slightly to weather tight to the committee boat and thought we were in pretty good shape. Then suddenly out of nowhere in comes Alpha Omega on starboard tack. We had been so focused on the stalled boats at the committee boat end we had not noticed Alpha starting on starboard further down the line, far enough down the line that with the help of a slight wind shift she could clear the committee boat. We threw in a tack to avoid her and would have been OK but the jib must have got caught aback in the tack and swung our bow down into the Freddy M.
We pushed off back onto port tack and regained some speed as the fleet sailed away. Then to acerbate the situation even further we had to do a 720 for fitting the committee boat. So by the time we were underway again we were well behind. But the Circe Crew is good at catch up.
The fleet rounded the weather mark (which was oddly lying on its side) with Abra first, Blue Streak very close behind, then Amelia, Veloce, Alpha. We rounded the weather mark well last. But on the second leg, which was a very broad port tack reach we closed a lot of ground due to good boat speed and a luffing duel among the boats ahead. It looked like Amelia, Veloce, and Alpha rounded the mark about the same time but with Amelia on the inside and Alpha on the outside. We came down on the mark wing and wing for the last little bit without the pole and rounded cleanly on our own closing the gap further.
The leg back to the city mark was a close reach and we continued to reel Alpha back in then we heard on the radio that Graham was shortening the course because the weather mark was sinking. The race wasn’t shortened to 2x around as Jay predicted but to 1x around. We had closed the gap considerably but needed at least another rotation or two to pass people.
The Slaw Brothers
RESULTS
At the finish we were only 23 seconds behind Alpha on elapsed time and 46 seconds behind Veloce. On corrected time we finished 6th but were only 22 seconds behind Alpha, 50 seconds behind Abra, and 53 seconds behind Veloce. With more time I’m sure we would have closed those gaps considerably, but alas did not have the chance. BS won another one but only 16 seconds ahead of Amelia in second. Veloce was third, Abra fourth, Alpha fifth, and Circe sixth.
In the series Blue Streak won it handily with 7 points. Circe and Abra were tied with 14 points but since Abra beat us in the last race they got the second and Circe the third. We could not use this race as our drop race because we had used that up when Circe went cruising. So over the three summer series we got a second, first, and third. Not a bad summer at all.
Thanks Audrey and Chris B for joining us for this race. Thanks to the whole Circe Crew for your dedication over the summer.
The next race is Champion of Champions this Saturday. Sam will be back on board for that and we have shanghied Troy from Amelia to help out too.
This will be Jay’s last race on Circe for this season but there is talk of a Circe post season gathering, possibly at Susan’s and possibly in October. So stay tuned for that.
Again, well done Circe Crew!!!
Skipper Ron