> The most fun of the day for me was the jostling at the line waiting for
Jerry
> to blow the starting horn. Boats everywhere, going every which way!
Scuse
> me, pardon me, Starboard tack.. STARBOARD TACK! rang out over the water in
> the anxious moments before the start, but soon we were off and running.
Due
> to the little racing experience that I have had, I was able to be the third
> over the line, but after a few blown tacks HC quickly dropped to mid pack.
> Then, when all seemed to be lost, my memory of "ditch" sailing tactics came
> back to me, and with a little help from a broken cleat on Judy's boat, HC
was
> able to finish second only to Jerry and Sunshine. Whahooo! The thing that
> amazed me the most was how well Todd (Jerry's son) did in their P-15. This
> has always been a fast Potter ,but I had attributed this to Jerry's
abilities.
> Well, Todd not only beat all of the other small Potters, but also four of
> the big Potters!
>
Hi Webgang,
Larry is being more than gracious when he attributes his second place ahead
of us to a broken cleat on Redwing, The truth is, he out-sailed me and
David in the middle third of the race. And of course, after the first five
minutes, nobody even came close to passing Jerry in his HMS18 "Sunshine."
Larry read the wind shifts along "the ditch" perfectly. When the wind handed
him the opportunity, he seized it before anyone else even noticed. On one
long reach, he passed most of the fleet while everybody else was still trying
to tackl into the headwind that had been there two minutes prior! We danged
near caught up to him in the last third of the race, but he had too great a
lead from that one brilliant tactic.
Sunday, I took a page from Larry's book and paid closer attention to the wind
shifts along "the ditch", as Larry calls the river. We jibed frequently to
take advantage of every windshift on the downwind run. Redwing left
everybody way behind except Todd in Breezy. Boy, is he one good sailor!
I enjoyed sailing through the middle of the regatta. We sometimes jibed
every 30 seconds in order to avoid forcing any racers to give way to us. We
were "in the groove", found our holes to scoot through the pack of racers,
and loved every minute of it.
Thanks for the lesson on "ditch sailing" Larry -- next year we'll give you a
better run for the trophy!
Best,
Judy B.
PS. As we go through the "sea trials" of re-commissioning Redwing, we're
finding all the things that are weak or broken. Saturday, a brand new Harken
cleat lost its spring-loading (which keeps it closed). During the race, it
kept grabbing the lazy jibsheet in a death grip. On Sunday, an old spinnaker
ring gave up the ghost.
The third "problem" was actually funny: when we put down the keel at
launching, David discovered I had permanently covered the hole for the bolt
which locks down the keel when I reglassed the keel trunk. OOPS! I knew
there was something I was forgetting when I did that job.
Fortunately, we had about 100 pounds of various tools and stainless steel
spare parts aboard and I was able to rig a keel tie-down in under five
minutes with a battery powered drill, two eyehooks and a few bungies.