Yacht Club Team Challenge Race

Since we were representing Bayview we got some veteran club members for crew. Nick Cost served on the mast, Dane Christy as trimmer, Tim Prophet as trimmer, and Carl Kuspa as tactician and fireman. Regular crew members Colleen did halyard, navigation and trim, Rodney on the main, and Nancy on bow. Challengers in our class were Jayhawker representing LSSC (J120), Hard Attack (Mumm30), and Mr Bill (j35). This was a windward start with the committee boat slightly favored before the start. We ran the line on port and started at the committee boat side on port. After a short time we tacked to starboard and eventually Jayhawker crossed us. Karl had me come up a little as he crossed and then turn down a little as he tacked on top of us. This enabled us to get our nose out a little. A little scare occured when one of the trimmers let the main sheet winch loose and the main flogged, slowing us down. Thanks to the crew getting it in quickly and me turning the boat down a little we were able to recover our speed. From there on Rod and I worked on speed accelerating and then pointing to get us up into their lane to interfere with their sails from leeward. We got up to the windward mark with Jhopper about 10 boat lengths behind us. After rounding the top mark we made our second mistake. When the spinnaker went up the halyard got unattached when it was put up. The spinnaker fell to the water but the crew calmly pulled it out of the water reattached the spare halyard and put it back up. At this point the rest of the race was spent trying to get enough distance and half covering the J35 to get them on corrected time. We did that by 13 seconds, a little close for comfort but still a first place. This was a little bit of a navigational challenge since we were the first boat and they gave us the last trhee marks at the third mark but Colleen got us through it without a hitch. The other BYC teams Epic took first, Seafever took first and Jim Coolidge's boat took second. There was a little bit of a wait for the flags because Epic got protested for the length of his wisker pole in Jam but it turned out to be bogus and he prevailed. BYC takes 1st in the regatta for the 5th straight year.

Course: 199 degrees 2.6 miles, 19 degrees 2.6 miles, 200 degrees 1.32 miles, 198 degrees 1.29 miles, 78 degrees 1.26 miles, 350 degrees 2.24 miles at finish

Result: 1st out of a mixed fleet of 4