SYSCO Thursday Spring Series Fleet C Cruising Races 1 though 5

Race 1 -- Aventura was at Schooner Creek Boatworks getting bottom paint, hull waxing and polishing, two bladed feathering propeller servicing, and anodes replacing.  Aventura score: 6 points.

Race 2 - No plot.  Wind was very light about 4 knots gusting to maybe 6 knots.  River current 2+ knots.  Aventura really is a light wind speedster.  The course was "T", Start-Mark 1-Mark 3-Finish.  We managed to get a good start.  We rounded the mark with Cepheron in front and River Weasel on our stern.  We set the whisker pole to starboard. and managed to stay up with the two boats.  These two boats are in Cruising Class B.  We are in Cruising Class C with La Dolce Vita, Wildheart, PuddleTown, and First Light.  First Light did not show. 

The whole downwind leg was slow. Cepheron managed to stay ahead of us while River Weasel kept taking my air behind us.  We managed to separate from River Weasel and stay up with Cepheron.  But at the leeward mark, we were third.  We stayed on port tack until we could make the finish line. Cepheron did too. River Weasel went directly to starboard tack.  I find when we do the port tack out in the main channel and not down near the finish line, we get better speed to the line than if we did it near the finish line.  We did and finished after Cepheron and before River Weasel.  Our C fleet members did not finish the race due to dying wind.  They were scored TLE (Time Limit Exceeded, 30 minutes after the first finishing boat).  TLE means the boats scored this way get one point more than the finishing boats.  Since Aventura was the only finisher in our class, the other boats each got 2 points.  Avenutura score: 7 points.

Races 3 and 4 were abandoned.  In race 3 the wind did not show up at all.  In race 4 the wind showed up enough to start the race.  Since the course was "T" again and the wind was from the west, everyone made it to the windward mark.  We made it to the windward mark first.  We rounded the mark and for a change set the whisker pole to starboard.  We took a while to clear the mark and make it upstream about 5 boat lengths.  The others rounded the mark and promptly stopped. We sailed like this for the next 50 minutes.  We gain a little upstream and the fleet would gain a little so the slow faded back.  We would lose a little ground and they would lose a little more.  The race committee abandoned the race after an hour and when it was clear the wind would not be strengthening any that evening.

Race 5 -  Course was Start-2-14-Finish.  The wind was like a summer evening.  it was straight out of the west near I-5 bridge, but in the middle near 14 it had some north aspect.  Wind speed was 4 to 8 knots.  We had an unusual start.  One boat in our start was over early.  I tried to stay above the line, but was not sure we were not over.  So the Over flag came up.  River Weasel was clearly over the line and turned around immediately to go back and clear his flag.  He took a little while.  Meanwhile I was not sure we had gone over the line or not.  So rather than get further away from the start line, we turned back go back to the line.  At that time the Over flag came down.  We had not crossed the line before the horn.  We turned back to rejoin the race.  We made good time to the windward mark and caught up to our only competitor that night.  Two boats did not show and PuddleTown had to take a crew back to land before the race started. We cut inside La Dolce Vita (LDV) at the mark because he took quite a wide rounding.  We set the whisker pole our to port.  The wind was light, but we were going upstream.  We continued gaining distance away from LDV for a bit, then LDV gained on us closing to within 5 boat lengths by the half way point to 14.  We loosened the back stay to give the head sail better shape and kept our weight aft and picked up a little speed.  That was enough give us more distance ahead of LDV.  We rounded 14 with LDV about a football field length behind us.  We tacked to port and gained enough distance to make the finish line with one more tack.  We got the horn when we crossed the finish line.  Aventura score: 8 points.


 

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