Memorial Day - 2009

I can’t remember a more exhilarating and spectacular racing experience on Psyché’s Song.

Certainly, last Sunday’s Memorial Day Race came close, if it did not equal that day we had to jibe to the wrong side of H-Mark and then tack with our spinnaker up to round the mark on the correct side. That maneuver was forced upon us by about a half dozen arguably overlapped boats which would not or could not give rights to us in our inside position. After returning to the course, we rapidly overtook the troublesome handful of boats and won.

Winning in last Sunday’s 18-boat fleet came close to that. We had plenty of knowledgeable spectators, from the Fulmore race in from Santa Cruz who could tell we were in a zone. Psyché’s Song had clearly had her groove back. The performance of all aboard made the result possible: Pat called for the successful windward passage through the kelp beds with which we caught two or three boats on the first leg; it clearly was the smoothest and quickest spinnaker set I can recall; the 18-22 knot winds did the rest.

This win elevated Psyché’s Song into 1st place in the race for the annual High Point Trophy (CHRF Sunday series) at 95 points, but it’s a narrow lead. Our nearest challenger is 4th place Browser who, with two wins has 84 points with her 19 points for race committee still coming to her.