A Beautiful Day for Sailing . . .

Ended up as successful race, but it was not pretty!

The Fall Series #4 was ours to lose. We had two bullets and a 7th place. But a well-sailed 27-footer was in contention. Sunday's race shaped up as our throw-out. We had to sail and do what we could to keep our adversary from finishing above 7th place.

This conservative game plan flew out the window as soon as I got caught up in the excitement of the start. This was a long-ish race at 11 miles. Instead of looking for an uncontested space of free air anywhere along the line, I had to go for the starboard pin. Of course I found myself forced over early by a Beneteau-40. Exactly what I deserved for my stupidity.

The Good Guys nevertheless fought their way up the first leg, avoiding the adverse current and risking kelp in by the beach. We rounded in the middle of the fleet, ahead of the 27-footer, who heated up by going high. But the problem is always whoever goes high must eventually come down!  

We ditched two or three pursuers with a deft rounding of the oil platform and headed back up to finish.

There our prospects dimmed in the falling breeze. A Sabre-36 which I had held off the year previous, fell off and footed past me, ultimately correcting out to first place. Skipper said he had a crack sail-trimmer aboard; I say the light winds are what sank our prospects (and I'm sticking to that).

We corrected out in the middle of the fleet, one place below the 27-footer.