Another Second Place

We raced this past Saturday in the fourth race of the Winter 6 Pac series hosted by Pacific Sailing and took a second place by about 20 seconds on corrected time. In addition to the crazy swirling wind conditions brought on by the storm that was passing through, we had the unpredictable currents thanks to the tsunami from the earthquake in Chile.

Thanks to the crew of David, Liz, Jeremy, Jessica and my co-captain Risa K.

We had a great start hitting the line just seconds after the gun even though the current coming out into Long Beach Harbor from the LA River tried to push us over the line early. We were close-hauled to the first mark but the winds going from a steady 10+knots to gusting to over 20 knots made it a thrilling ride and we made the first mark close on the heels of Sea Roy, a Hunter 46 and ahead of Platform 9 3/4 a Hunter 38. After rounding the first mark, we ran deep downwind to our second mark, Island White. The wind was a steadier 18 knots or so and we were running downwind about about 7 knots, a good speed for a 36 foot boat.

After rounding Island White, we made a strong beam reach to the final mark, Island Freeman. Although Sea Roy was slowing gaining distance on us, we were able to keep the distance manageable and within striking distance based on the ratings of the two boats. We rounded Freeman and tried to time our tack so that we could make a straight line close-hauled run to the finish line. As usual we had to dodge an anchored barge as we made our final leg and with the wind and currents causing the boat to slide fairly significantly sideways, we were not able to make the finish line without throwing in two quick tacks right at the line. Thanks to the fine work of the crew, we were able to make the line and keep the race close based on corrected time.

Congrats to Dan and Dave on their win and continued standing in first place for the Winter 6 Pac series.

We are having spinnaker practice this Sunday, meeting at the boat in Rainbow Harbor at 1300 and planning on being back at the dock around 1600.

Next race will be the fifth race in the Winter 6 Pac series on Saturday, March 13th.