DE BESS CREW
Kathleen – foredeck and chief spotter
Nansi –foredeck and midship audio relay
Susan – mainsheet, race timer and tactics
Jay and Jaysdad (a.k.a. Hugh*) – jib sheets
Steve (one VERY reluctant skipper, a.k.a. OVRS**) – helm
Audrey and Son Antoine – shore crew, table sitting division
Jaysmom (a.k.a. Judy*) – shore crew, media
AWOL: Pam, Skipper Ron

*Jay, I’m awful with names. Please correct me if I’ve misnamed your family!
**Unlike Skipper Ron, I’m also awful with memory in general. So if I’ve named a wrong boat in this account, please correct me there, too.
**Also unlike Skipper Ron, who manages to make excuse-free reports, Ovrs feels some explanation is necessary.
***Susan, I need an editor.

DE CONDITIONS
Patchy breeze. 0-7 knots. Graham set a triangle, buoys to starboard, 3X around.
Early Start, but we waited for the 5:15 bearing the Jay Family.

DE RACE TING
Circe III was rigged and ready by the time the crew arrived, light #1 confidently on the foredeck in anticipation that something resembling a breeze might appear. Jaysdad was welcomed aboard (no bosun’s whistle, my bad), we hauled out of the slip as Jaysmom snapped photos for the Jay family album from shore.

Thankfully, no weed on the prop – hence no excuses, rats – so Jay and Ovrs both stayed dry. (Thanks, Jay, for volunteering, even though that really was on the skipper side of the duty board.)

With no time to spare, we motored past the committee boat even before raising the main. Sails up, and then one brilliantly executed practice tack (nice to see Jay bossing Jaysdad around); no more required. Truth be told, Ovrs was still getting used to holding the tiller and didn’t want to risk another sudden move just yet.

We sort of meandered, well, okay, drifted in the general direction of the starting area for awhile, then finally turned on the engine to power out of the rather large hole and get out of the way of the preceding fleet. Our own fleet was gathering near the pin end where some breeze was managing to touch down. And this, dear reader, is where the trouble began.

Ovrs figured that with the strong pin end port tack favour, a port tack was surely the way to go. Further, our nasty little clump of competition jostling in slo mo near the line was no place for a guy in a borrowed boat. But we were moving almost too well in our own relatively nice little breeze, so Ovrs called Jaysdad to luff the jib and steered on starboard tack parallel to but well shy of the line until…3:49. Til our start? Oh. Tack, head for the line. Plan being to cross just 3 or 4 seconds behind the clump, and just after Abra and Blue Streak who were crossing on starboard. Rely on Circe’s light air speed to make up the diff. Yeah, well. Except in watching the clump so intently, Ovrs sailed Circe right out of the breeze. Not quite Dead Calm but….so maybe we started 40 seconds behind the clump. Ouch. This was really embarrassing.

Finally, Kathleen sighted the start line, then congratulated Ovrs for crossing it.

Circe caught the breeze, shifted gears, and with superior sail trimming we caught up to the butt end of the clump, where Ovrs strategically placed our bow right on Amelia’s transom. Then to edging alongside to windward, then back on her transom. Eventually, Susan tired of this and gently suggested that we tack away into clear air where, by the way, there was also more breeze. Steups, as they say in Trinidad.

We rounded the mark at good speed, and began to play catch-up in earnest. Great sail trim everyone! Amelia (or was that Kokoro?) and Messing About were playing silly games and went high while we beelined for the mark, handily passing both. Despite forgetting to ease the boom vang and the outhaul. Rounded and headed for the…next mark?

In the distance, we watched Abra harden up after rounding and tear off in a great breeze. Oddly, Blue Streak, otherwise doing a horizon job, appeared to head uncharacteristically out of the better wind, squandering her lead. This should have been a clue.

Some discussion aboard as we approached the mark rounding, we’ll harden up then tack when we reach the stronger wi…no, wait, that’s a shorten course flag, is this the finish? Only once around? This can’t be the finish. S#*t, this is the finish, s#*t, as Ovrs angled Circe towards the mark when the committee boat was clearly the favoured end, in case it was a mark rounding and not a finish which it wasn’t. It was de finish.

(Graham, what were you thinking?)

Once past the pain of that first half of the first leg, Circe was moving really, really well. De Bess Crew is clearly de bess. We would have really enjoyed one more time around. And there’s every possibility Circe could have improved her placing. But since we finished 1:12 behind Abra (corrected time) and only 0:14 ahead of Kokoro, there’s also every possibility Ovrs could have dropped us to fifth. Furthermore, the breeze had stiffened considerably, to the point where beating to the windward mark might have been one knot too far for the light #1. And where Erdle only got his moniker on a new handle, Ovrs wasn’t too keen on getting his handle on a new genoa.

The main folding was stellar. Fenders stayed on board until we passed the ferry dock. We did not hit the wall on the way in. Jaysmom helped fold the jib. Nansi turned off the battery. Audrey and Antoine had a table waiting for us. The beer was welcome. And although Circe placed fourth, the company was unbeatable.

(BTW, Skipper Ron: There’s a small spray can of McLube in the port cupboard beside the tool box. I sprayed a few of the mainsail slides and the jib luff. And wiped and sprayed the whisker pole. Maybe we’ll get to try it on Sunday. We still need mainsail telltales. Not that Susan needs them, but we mortals do.)