The Wind Winneth and Loseth Races

Tonight, it loseth my Wednesday twilight beer can race. The local print press covers our Wednesday competitions and pegged the wind at 2 knots. Except at the end, it wasn't quite that bad. However, there was not much I could think of doing to obtain an edge over the competition. The port end of the line was extremely favored in the extremely light breeze. Even though the risks were high considering our displacement, I elected a daring port tack start. Nothing to lose, experience to gain, I argued. Tempting the fates did not work: we had to duck 3-5 boats, killing our way in four knots of wind. I tried the short cut through the kelp beds and that didn't pay off too much because we weren't heeled enough to burn through it: we didn't catch any of it in our rudder; just the below the surface friction slowed us down. But I was patient, knowing that there was not that much we could do. Still, in the end I was surprised how well we did: boats who can keep up with us in better wind were behind us, almost on the horizon.