Summer Race Series

On Sunday, June 13th we raced in the first race of the Summer Series hosted by Shoreline Yacht Club. Many thanks to the crew of Larry Palmer, Lesley MacDonald, Victoria Hodge, Liz Roberts, Dave Lyon and my darling co-captain Risa K. Scott, we took third in the spinnaker class.

Although the forecast was for a lighter day than Saturday, we had about the same 10 knots or so of wind at the start. We had been out practicing and were almost late to the start, but we still got a good start and were first across the line. We tacked shortly after the start which proved to not be the right call and by the end of the first mark we were in third place. Mille goes to windward really well and we should have been better placed at the first mark.

The second leg was a broad reach along the breakwater which the competitors split with about half going inside and about half (Mille included) going outside. As the wind was building and during our practice before the start of the race we had had problems with setting and handling the chute, we decided to do this leg under genoa and main. Again there was a split in the fleet with some of the competitors opting to fly their chutes and others like us, deciding not to. The boats that decided to fly their chutes had a clear advantage, but we caught and passed one competitor on this leg. We gybed around the mark for a short beam reach to the next mark.

The wind had continued to build and was steady at 15-16 knots gusting to 18-20 as we made our upwind beat to the next mark. Although it was not the classic tacking duel that we used to see in the America’s Cup competition, we crossed three times with Hassle, a Catalina 38, gaining ground on her on every cross. We were the second boat around the upwind mark although the lead boat (a trimaran) was so far ahead of the rest of the fleet they must have felt like they were sailing a different race. I looked over my shoulder as we were making the mostly downwind run to see where Hassle was when I saw their main split about 2/3 of the way up. Having had sails rip a couple of times, it is not a sight any sailor wants to see.

We made the last mark and turned for the upwind beat to the finish line. We crossed as the second boat in our fleet (Puddle Jumper, the trimaran was already at the club for drinks) but finished third on corrected time. After the race most of our team headed to Shoreline Yacht Club for grilled hamburgers made with kobe beef donated by American Kobe Beef, LLC and wonderfully prepared by Lisa Anderson.

Next race is the second race in the Summer Series on Sunday, June 20th.