Detroit Yacht Club Regatta

What a day! This was starboard broad reach start. We watched a number of earlier starts and found the committee boat side was highly favored. We simply went down to the first boat coming down on starboard tacked and started at the committee boat right at the gun. Nancy thought we were right on the line. Unfortunately I did allow Ihnsanity get on the windward side of us and she managed to round the first mark in front of us. Hot Ticket on the next windward leg did a good job of catching up to us but with Ihnsanity eventually tacked away where we went in to the Canadian shore on a lift. We got enough of a lead on them to hold off HT, Ihnsanity and Night Moves in the river. By this time the velocity picked up to about 17 knots but we seemed to have good upwind speed and the tacks by the crew were pretty fast.

Result: 1st out of 6 boats. Link: http://www.drya.org/race2005/Results/dyc.htm

postscript--We also received at the DYC regatta party a first place flag for the regatta last summer. We got a flag and a picture of the trophy we supposedly had our name on. That is the first time I have got an picture and not allowed to see the trophy. Its been years since I belonged to DYC and they have not changed much. The program called for the awards at 4 pm and they did not get given out until 5:30 so even Rodney left. I also got chewed out by the cigar counter girl for wearing a hat in the hallway.

Detroit Yacht Club Regatta

This was starboard windward start with the pin end favored with 6 knots of air. There were only 3 boats in this race. Merlin had Wally Cross on the boat and by staying to the left of them I would be able to take the pin end. Unfortunately I later found out that they had a new #1 and mainsail. Although we started to weather we were not able to point up with them and we simple had to go to leeward and a little behind. We rounded the next mark in 2nd just ahead of J. Since the apparent wind was at 85 degrees I decided to us the .75 which initially fast. towards the end of the leg it was definately downwind conditions.At the gybe point we went with the .6 with a gybe peel. I made the decision to go on the canadian shore because I felt the wind was stronger. Merlin covered us but later gybed up to Jwalker on the far right. I decided to cut the rear range light close because I thought that side would be stronger pressure. It turned out that the american side had more air where Merlin and J got more pressure to finish in front of us.

Usually the left strategy works for these conditions but they do not call it Lake St. Stupid for nothing.

Result : 3rd out of 3

Link: http://www.drya.org/race2006/Results/dyc.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race

The first leg a near fetch. The port side of the line was heavily favored. I was thinking that tacking on to starboard would give us a slow start so I tried squeezing in on port on the pin side. The net result was a bad start taking gas from Hot Ticket and Jayhawker. In order to get better air we made a short starboard tack. Fortunately by doing this we got more pressure and a slight lift to help us round the first mark in 3rd place. Also for some reason Hot Ticket tacked behind us and ended up overstanding the leg. The next downwind leg Merlin and Jayhawker went far right and we tried to go underneath both of them. Fortunately at the next mark Merlin gybed where we and Jayhawker kept going down towards the river. The current gave us enough of a boost to enable us to pass Merlin. The rest of the race we tried to pass Jayhawker to no avail. We managed to finish however only 6 seconds behind.

Result: 2nd out of 5 boats. Link:http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Spring%20Race%202.pdf

Great Lakes Regatta

Race cancelled due to no wind but we did win the J120 on the water party.

Windsor Wednesday Race

For first time out I felt we sailed a good race. we were off the line right on time and upwind speed seemed good.
The only major mistake that I made was to do a jibe set at the first mark. This slowed us down enough where Hot Ticket was able to catch up. Mike got to try out as foredeck and although it was a learning experience he did a pretty good job.

Result: 2nd out of 6 boats. Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Spring%20Race%201.pdf

Lake St. Clair Spring Double Handed Race

Mike agreed to do this regatta with me. Although put into a PHRF class Merlin with Rob Amsler and Pete did participate in the same class. We took the pin side of the line and apparently Rob had gotten a line wrapped around the prop shaft so he missed the count for the gun. Merlin immediately put up their small spinnaker on a 55 degree reach. We attempted to put up our large spinnaker with the sock on it put had problems with the top of it. Fortunately we were able to continue with our geneoa and because the mark was much closer to the shore than the location given in the program we managed to squeeze in ahead of Merlin. Following the mark we popped our small spinnaker and managed to stretch our lead over Merlin. The following mark R18 in the channel we rounded with a barge and were not able to go over to the Crescent Yacht Club until later in the leg. Merlin attempted to stay in the channel for the current even later but fell further behind. Result: 1st out of 8 boats.