Great Lakes Regatta, - Love, set, and match

This was a windward leeward course with two 4 leg races. We had only 4 people show up so we enlisted the help of Sara who sails on Jayhawker so we had 5. This must not be a popular race because only Merlin showed up with 9 people aboard so we got a match race. At the start it blew about 12 knots but because of it being shifty by the time we got to our start it had shifted left. With this piece of information I was determined to start at the pin end. I actively tried to stay of the right of Merlin and gibed and went on starboard before the start to barely make the pin. We started slow but gassed Merlin clear ahead so she was force to tack. We tacked once in front of her but was unable to keep going upwind with her when the wind speed picked up to 14 knots. She just had too many more bodies. We managed to stay with her the rest of the race and if we would of had another 100 yards we may have passed her when she blew a gybe.

The 2nd race Merlin started a little closer to the line and we were caught leeward and a little behind. I stayed on starboard for a little way to get the boat speed going. I had Rod set up the cockpit for a tack and then had the crew move to their positions when it was time to go. We completely took Merlin by surprise and when she tried to tack to cover it was done badly. With the speed and coming off a good tack we managed to nose a little ahead and then slowly worked our way into their lane. Since this was the leg to the mark they had to take our gas and rounded maybe a 100 yards behind us. At the top mark they gybe set and went left. I did a rough cover but Merlin managed to get more pressure in their lane. At the bottom of the leg they came in hot, got an inside, rounded in front of us. Caprice was rounding at that point so when Merlin he started yelling starboard. He must of scared the tar off of Irv Yackness because he immediately made a 90° turn away. We had not got our headsail out in time and with that and the spinnaker coming down at the same time it go wrapped around the headsail. It took nearly half a leg to clear everything but because we kept our cool Merlin tacked only 75 yards in front of us. For some odd reason he kept going and I stayed on port because I saw a giant header coming with some pressure. When the wind hit I tacked and we rounded right behind Merlin. With our spinnaker up I decided to gybe away in order to get the wind I thought was on the left side of course. Immediately after the heavier air hit Merlin and drove him to the leeward mark. After that it was meerly follow the leader.

All in all we were not expecting to win because of a shortage of bodies, but we needed to show up so that we could qualifiy for the year. We could of done a lot worse but we made Merlin earn her win by sticking with them. I think the crew came through for what we had. If we had more people we could of done better in the heavier air gust and would have done much better on the upwind legs. In any case we got to do some match racing and that is different mindset needed for that type of competition. It was a lot of fun

Result: 2 out of 2 for both races.
Link: http://www.drya.org/race2006/Results/glyc.htm