Sorry

I have been chastised by several of you for not updating the blog in several weeks (okay maybe months). Wow - guess there are a few folks actually reading this thing.

Our last race was the Dog Days of Summer hosted by Little Ships Fleet Yacht Club. This is the first race in the second half of the Long Beach Harbor Invitational Series. There are three more races in this series between now and November. We places fourth in our class. Thanks to the crew of Lesley MacDonald, David Harper, Larry Palmer, Carolin and Jack Lusby and my darling co-captain Risa Scott.

We had a good start hitting the line right after the gun went off on a starboard tack which is Mille's favorite tack. The winds were good and steady around 10-11 knots. We tacked a couple of times out to the first mark and rounded in third place. The next leg was a downwind run and we had a great spinnaker set thanks to the foredeck crew of David, Lesley and Risa. Larry helmed the entire race and kept us right on course and moving constantly in the direction of the next mark. The run to the next mark under the chute was good but the wind kept trying to move more to the west and as is usually the case, we had to be vigilant about trimming the chute. The foredeck crew shown again with the douse and we rounded the second mark still in third place and in competition with the leaders in our class.

The next leg was again a beat to windward as we tacked to get out of Queen's Gate to make our third mark. The wind was building and we debated about switching to the Number 2 jib but stayed with the Number 1. By the time we rounded the mark, the wind was blowing 18 knots. As the next leg was a deep reach to get around the east end of the breakwater, we opted to leave the chute in the bag and go with the Number 1 jib. The boat that was in fourth place managed to pass us and we were not able to make the ground we lost back up.

The last leg was a short upwind beat to the finish line and as noted above we finished fourth in our class. Thanks again to the crew and to the race committee at Little Ship's Fleet for their work in hosting the race.

The weekend before we did the Ship Rock Race hosted by Seal Beach Yacht Club. This is the first in their Ocean Racing Series which are a nice change to the buoy racing that we do a lot of in Long Beach Harbor. Many thanks to the crew of Warren Wolfe, David Harper, Jim Merk, Lesley MacDonald, and my wonderful co-captain Risa Scott. This race started near Oil Island Chaffee, rounds Ship Rock at the Isthmus of Catalina and finishes in the entrance to Alamitos Bay. Interesting to have a race that is slightly less than 50 nautical miles and one one mark to round! Although to a person the crew had a great time and has all agreed to race with the team again, we finished last in our class.

At the start of the race, you are close to the east end of the Long Beach breakwater and so our navigator (yours truly) took us around that end of the wall and started the process of tacking to get to Ship Rock. This proved to be the wrong call as the majority of the fleet headed up Long Beach Harbor inside the breakwater and exited via Angel's Gate. Although is is slightly longer the angle of attack from there to Ship Rock is much better and avoids some current that is outside the wall and also the tacks necessary to make the only mark. The wind started at about 10 knots but continued to build all day. We opted to switch from the Number 1 jib to the Number 2 about half the way over to Ship Rock.

We saw many of the boats in the two fleets that started ahead of us (and apparently in our class also) headed back as we were still on our approach to Ship Rock. By the time we rounded the only mark in the race the wind was 18-20 knots. We were on a deep run and making about 7-8 knots which is at or beyond maximum hull speed of Mille. We opted to leave the chute in the bag and run home under the Number 2 jib. As often happens right around sunset, the wind dropped off to a mere 3 knots as we were less than one nautical mile from the end of the breakwater. Warren Wolfe had tantalized the crew with thoughts of crab legs at Gladstones instead of the turkey sandwiches which we had planned on. This plan looked good until the wind died! It took us about an hour to finish the last mile and half crossing the finish line just a few minutes past 21:00 hours.

Next race is the Long Beach to Dana Point on Saturday, September 4th hosted by Shoreline Yacht Club. We will race to Dana Point on Saturday and then bring the boat back to Long Beach on Sunday.