Windsor Wednesday Race

This race was course 3 with a little favored on the pin side for a 7 knot weather leg. I wanted to start on starboard on the pin side and go to port as soon possible. 2 minutes before the start I ran the line on port and turned when I got close to Jayhawker on starboard. Unfortunately Merlin wanted to sneak in from the outside so I needed to duck him and then tried to jam it. Merlin was over early but it did not do us much good because I had to let the starboard boats (NM, Jhopper, and Flyin Irish) go by and then tacked to port. I felt at the time this was still favored since we were going down to DP8 to get in the current. They must of had a little more pressure on the left because NM still beat us around the pin. The following leg was a broad reach that got further back as we approached Mark A. NM stayed a little faster with their 3/4 and going a little higher. We did a Puerto Rican takedown and just got inside (after the pole was taken in) of an old IOR boat to enable us to pass them. The leg to CC was a fetch where we gained a little on NM. We continued on past CC where the wind speed dropped to 4 or 5 knots to get a little further down stream before tacking to get to DP7. There seemed to be more pressure on the island side so we tried to stay on the south side of the channel. Jhopper stayed a little more right and managed to tack in front of us where we were never able to make up the difference. Right at the end there was a little more wind on the left and Merlin almost caught up to us on starboard. Because we were a little further out in the river we continued on starboard when Merlin had to tack. That allowed us to finish before them.

This was a frustrating race because we could of done better but it did not pan out. A middle position is little like kissing your sister. The worst part is we lost to Jayhopper and I hate losing to Jay hopper.

COURSE 3 - 6.3 nautical miles
Start to DP8 (243o) leaving it to port
-then to A (091o) leaving it to port
-then to CC (291o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (251o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.

Result: 3 out of 5 J120's
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Fall%20Race%205.pdf

Detroit Yacht Club Sweepstakes Regatta - Redemption!

This was a series of 2 W/L races. Conditions started light and variable with 2 start delays. Although the start was set up for 60 degrees about 6 knots wind, the pin side was extremely favored. I noticed that that in the J105 start that Creative managed to port start ahead of everyone at the pin. In the NA40 start the pin side was also favored. I tried to start on port but let Ihnsanity get underneath me. This was a near disaster as he started to force me up and I had to jam the boat up and then just missed the pin on the port side of the boat. Because of slowing down we crossed behind Night Moves on starboard. We sailed to weather well as we were able to sail a little above and caught up a little to Ihnsanity. I believe this was because we had tuned the mast to fall off at the top to leeward a little to get us a little speed advantage. In any case we managed to get to the top mark in 2nd just behind NM. We got our spinnaker up pretty fast and blanketed NM downwind. I decided I wanted to jibe to the left of NM so that when we came across on starboard so we could cross ahead. Later in the downwind leg I felt that the wind was a little stronger on the left so we came in on the layline and then did a mexican take down ahead of NM. This put us in 1st place. At this point it was a loose cover staying on the Canadian side of the course and winning the race.

Race 2 was with the wind at about 8.5 knots with the line fairly square. We started biased towards the pin side with

Ihnsanity in the middle and NM on the right side. We managed to work up on Ihnsanity and forced her away and then tacked underneath NM. When we tacked back on port Ihnsanity tacked right in front of us in our lane. Because NM was a couple lanes up we tacked out to get a clear lane and almost up to the left layline. Although we would not able to gain we could get clearer air and reduce the damage. After rounding the windward mark in 3rd we jibed right away to get on the left side of the course. We managed to catch up to a point where Ihnsanity rounded the leeward mark ahead of us but because we came in and did another mexican take down we were able to round on the inside of NM and climb up to 2nd. On this windward leg Ihnsanity incredibly tacked away from our lane a little past the layline and rounded in first. We had the NA40 Montabi round just ahead of us and I snuck in between them and the mark. He started to come down a little and thanks to Nancy's quick thinking of gathering the spinnaker so we would not touch the mark. We then filled the spinnaker and jibed to port. Although in first I wanted to stay to the left of Ihnsanity where if we had to cross we could do it on starboard. Fortunately at the finish line we did cross in front of her and jibed back in front of her because the left side of the line was favored and finished 1st. Both Night Moves and Ihnsanity sailed very good races for the finishes were all less than 50 seconds apart. I felt we used a couple of good tricks and again had some great crew work. Rob Ramirez said he liked the mexican takedown so much he wanted to rename it the Puerto Rican takedown. In any case we had some mediocre starts and managed to climb back up...redemption. Maybe we can get another picture of the trophy again this year.

Result: 1 out of 3 J120s
Link: http://www.drya.org/race2005/Results/dycsweep.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race

This race was course D with an even line with the wind maybe 20 degrees from behind. It was a port start with a code 0 launch. Because the true wind was behind the line I wanted to be by the committee boat side and slide down the line launching the chute early which we did. Unfortunately we could not seem to get enough boat speed so most of the J120's rounded the first mark in front of us. We gibed around the mark and continued on a starboard tack with the code 0. We continued to go slow when Mike revealed to me that we had attached the sail on backwards. This explained the slowness and flogging. At this point we put up the head sail and switched to the AP spinnaker. We rounded mark B tied for last place where Jayhawker did a mexican takedown so he tacked while we continued on starboard. Merlin was on the same tack ahead of us so at the first opening I tacked to port. I tacked again at the near layline on starboard at mark A. The next leg was again a close reach with the code 0. We stayed low on Jayhawker and Merlin and managed to inch them out at mark D. The next leg was a windward one where we stayed on port and then tacked when the it was evident the boat ahead was slowing us down. We tacked on port later and went to the layline of DP7 since it was further down stream. We managed to stay on starboard a little past DP7 and tacked in front of Flyin' Irish a little to windward. We managed to hold her off the rest of the way down the river and took 2nd. The only brilliant thing I had to say about this race was they managed to pull this out of our butts after such a problematic early race.

COURSE D - 7.2 nautical miles
Start to D (309o) leaving it to starboard
-then to B (081o) leaving it to starboard
-then to A (187o) leaving it to starboard
-then to D (296o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (212o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.

Result: 2nd out of 5 J120s
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Fall%20Race%204.pdf

Crescent Sail Yacht Club Regatta

This regatta was a dented trapezoid course with the first leg starting at 67 degrees on a starboard reach. The right pin mark was extremely favored. I chose to come in on port and tack inside Night Moves and Jayhawker to windward. After the gun went off although we were within 2 boat lengths of the right pin Jayhawker started yelling at NM to move to windward. He kept yapping about he must have room to go up but did not seem to understand he had give to both of us room within two boat lengths of the mark since we had an overlap. NM put up their code 0 first since he was getting gassed and had room below to put it up. Since JH to leeward took their time putting theirs up we had to wait for them to slide behind us to put ours up. At the next mark NM got there before us and dropped the code 0 and went back to a headsail. We got up there and for some reason the furling line came up in a knot. The only thing I could do was point the boat up, go slow and make the boats behind us go below us. Fortunately we were able to hold onto second by doing our go fast act. We got lifted to the next mark but unfortunately we did have to take a short hitch at the end because of boats rounding ahead of us. Here we tried to tack but for some reason the spinnaker was tangled up in it and it was another disaster. Because we were so slow we had to tack behind Merlin and then round mark B for a downwind leg with the .6 oz. Creative, a J105 was doing some shrimping with his spinnaker so we had to take him on the right and do a set. Merlin did a jibe set and was on the other board ahead

of us. This is where it got interesting. We had caught up to Merlin and only was maybe a boat length behind on the same board. Since we had trouble rolling them I had us do a quick starboard jibe and hope for better wind. When we crossed again we were ahead by about 2 boat lengths. I had intended to do a mexican takedown at the next mark but because I lost sight of the mark I jibe too soon. Because of this we had to jibe in front of Merlin and they rolled us before we got to mark C. The next leg was another reach and rounding it I managed to get inside of Merlin. We got our small spinnakers up and we did roll Merlin again. At this point I saw some bad weather and a header so I dropped out spinnaker first. Merlin dropped his right after but not before they rolled us again. When we hit mark we tacked to starboard right away and to get out from under them. This when the one inch of rain hit. What I did not realize was all the other boats stayed on port and then tacked when the win shifted 30 degrees in their favor. It was at this point we lost the race. The major mistakes I felt I made in this regatta was not preparing the crew enough for certain moves. I usually make it a point to be redundant about preparing for any moves and maybe these mistake would not have been made. Because our crew work this year has been much better than average I think sometimes I get complacent. When things did go wrong it did set us back. I also made a major mistake of not getting somebody in the crew to spot the mark I wanted to do a mexican takedown at. We would of crossed in front of Merlin. The worst mistake I made was not being aware of the changes in wind direction when the thunderstorm hit. I should of not got distracted by the conditions.

Result: 5 out of 5 J120's
Link: http://www.drya.org/race2005/Results/csyc.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race - Scha-wing!

This race we took Tom and Amy from Hot Ticket. This was a starboard close reach course (66 degrees) with the air coming from about 130 degrees at about 8 knots with the pin side favored. I chose to use the light #1. 3 of the J/120's approached the start on starboard from farther back and Merlin came in from port following the line. I went around the pin, came in on port, and tacked when I got close to the first starboard tack boat. We managed to hit the pin end at about half a boat length behind the line at the gun a little slow. Night Moves was right behind us and I chose to go up into their lane to gas them a little bit. When we got a little distance on them we went down leeward to Merlin who at the time was about even with us. Going farther up the leg we concentrated on boat speed (meaning constant sail trim). All we needed was a few feet forward and we could start gassing them. With adjustments made by Rod, Ben, and Mike (moving the lead forward and back)we were able to get that distance and then blanket them. This put us ahead of Merlin and NM about 10 boat lengths at the top mark. This time I chose to delay putting up the 3/4 until I was sure it was the right sail after rounding. We put it up and extended our lead to the next mark. By having clear air we had kept our distance on NM, the next J120. The next mark was also another close reach and we rounded without problem. The next downwind leg was with the .6, performed a Mexican takedown and rounded inside of Dirty Harry, a J105 going slow. The next leg was a close reach and we managed to roll him and came in close behind Creative, another J105. Fortunately they let us cut in underneath them without laying down on us. The following leg was againwith the head sail on a close reach. The last leg to DP7 we put up the .75 spinnaker because we were about at 60 degrees apparent. NM went with their code 0 and that proved to be a problem in the river. Our sail was larger and we were able to sail it a little lower without collapsing it. We finished less than a minute ahead of NM and finished first. This race I felt we were back in the groove with very little mistakes made tactically and crew work. Even Colton enjoyed steering the finish. I would rate it a sha-wing.

COURSE B - 7.5 nautical miles
Start to B (065o) leaving it to port
-then to D (261o) leaving it to port
-then to DP8 (208o) leaving it to port
-then to CC (063o) leaving it to port
-then to D (309o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (212o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.
Result: 1 out of 5 J120's
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Fall%20Race%202.pdf

Windsor Wednesday Race

Unfortunately we had only 5 of our crew to do this race. Merlin was kind enough to lend us Lara Scheibner and another crew member for the race. This start was in about 5 to 6 knots of air to weather with the committee boat side favored. I decided to start on starboard. Because we were a little early I did have to do a couple of s turns and slow downs to not be early. I tacked to port just before the gun to clear the anchor line and Night Moves almost rolled us to weather. Working with Lara Scheibner we managed to work up a couple of lanes to squeeze them out. We stayed on port and sailed right up to the layline because I thought there would be more wind by shore and then tacked. We managed to round first of the J120's. Since it was a short leg I had us put up the .6 oz which was a mistake. Merlin kept their headsail and almost caught us because it was close reach. We still managed to round in first with Merlin close behind. I chose to jibe and Night Moves almost caught us and then jibed away. Merlin who had stayed on the right side of the course crossed and consolidated in front of us. We managed to stay in second on a short 1 mile windward leg. On the next downwind leg Jayhawker managed to come up on our starboard side. They passed us a little in the river and it was an real battle to stay clear of them because I could not see them. We put up our headsail when we were headed but did not get enough distance to beat them. The main lesson of this race is I should of covered Merlin on the first downwind leg and I should of dumped the spinnaker when I saw that we were not going fast enough.

Result: 3 out of 5 J120's
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Fall%20Race%201.pdf

Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Regatta

W/L Race cancelled because of no wind. We got however a chance to practice our halyard jumping.

Delivery to Detroit

This is not a race entry but I wanted to post the photos of delivery stop made with Merlin and Jayhawker at Thunder Bay Island. It was just like a stop in the North Channel.

Little Traverse Regatta Day 3 - Schizophrenia!

The start of this race was delayed until we had adequate wind. In this race I wanted to get to the right side of the line since it was favored. I had to tack when Bounder tacked to starboard and I did not see any holes behind him. This race finally had some heavier air from 16 to 20 knots. We managed to put away Ihnsanity and Jayhawker from leeward. Merlin and Perseverence tacked in front of us but we hung in there. I went to a #3 on the second upwind leg but it turned out to be the wrong choice. We seemed to be doing well with the other J120's with #3's but could not keep up with the ones with #1's upwind. We switched back to the #1 on the next upwind leg while doing well with Perseverence and Merlin. We passed Merlin while even with her on port on the downwind leg and Merlin came over on starboard to take us out to the corner for the pin. When they jibed back they put an hourglass in their chute and we passed in front of them. On the same leg we passed Perserverence because they had already blown their .6 oz spinnaker and were flying their .75 oz chute. At that point we stayed in front on the next upwind leg and overstood a little the mark in order to control P and not make an extra tack. On the next downwind leg Merlin was right behind us and we did a leeward takedown early to stay conservative. I figured if Merlin pulled down their chute well we would still be on the inside of the mark. Merlin had trouble pulling it down so we left them in the dust. At that point we just covered to finish first. We took our spinnaker down early and overstood the windward mark a little bit. I figured in both cases if the boat behind us caught up they would still have to go through our air. This race was won by near perfect crew work and the good advise of Art Le Vasseur. We managed to finish dead *ss first in PHRF D and the entire fleet. Totally opposite of yesterday. Like I said it was Schizophrenia!

After all was done we found out by this race if we beat Hot Ticket we would win the J120 Great Lakes Trophy. Unfortunately they had the forestay seperate and lost their rig. Not the way to win it but this was a wonderful race for us.

Result: 1st of 7 J120's, 1st of 16 PHRF D, 1st of 43 in entire fleet
Link: http://www.ltyc.org/regatta_results/2005/2005Fleet.HTM

Little Traverse Regatta Day 2 - Ugh!

We started this race in about 3 knots of air. We started towards the left side of the line. I had a couple of boats that were over early so they managed to gas us at the start. Hot Ticket was on our left so that forced us into Hot Tickets lane. From there it went from bad to really bad. We could not seem to catch the whiffs of air in any of the bay. We kept trying different lanes from the boats in front of
us and it just put us further and further back. In any case they pulled the finish line right after we finished. I think it was the worst race of the entire year.

Result: dead *ss last in the PHRF D

Little Traverse Regatta Day 1

This was a series of three races. The wind most of the time except the last one was under 2 knots.

The first race I tacked the boat to starboard soon before the start and it put us behind the line. I saw Perseverance tacked to port to get the left side of the line and he put him self way ahead of the fleet. We managed to get only a 6 out of 7th because we could not just get the wind.

The second race we were over early. I should of jibed the boat when over early to come back on port to go in the other direction. By dipping and staying on starboard all we did was kept us under 2 other boats. The only uplifting part of the race was on the last downwind leg we kept way to the lake side of the course were there was more wind and we managed to carry it in a half circle course to finish ahead of Jayhawker who was stuck in a hole in the middle of the course.

The third race we had a reasonably good start on the committee boat side of the line. We had agreed before hand that we would go to the right side of the course to get lift off the shore. We tacked under two boats to our right and went up that side. When all the other boats tacked back on port we were ahead of all of them. We should of covered Perseverance since he was the lead boat but did not because it was decided that we would cover the left boats. When we tacked back Perseverance managed to tack ahead of us where we were the second to round. Capers tacked back on starboard with us but we managed to get a little ahead of them to force them back. The next two legs we kept our position behind the red boat. On the last downwind leg we got behind Perseverence maybe a 1000 yards before the finish. He came up in anticipation of us rolling him. I saw that he was nearly parallel to the line and I ducked him and we jibed the main. We managed to finish in first by a few feet.

Results: 1st race 6 out of 7
2nd race 6 out of 7
3rd race 1 out of 7

Bayview Mackinaw Race - ver.21.6!

This race started to weather coming out of the Northeast at about 8 knots after a 40 minute delay. At the beginning we got a reasonable start. I went in on port at about 4 minute before the start and turned to starboard when the boats turned to starboard. I managed to get the favored right side of the line and was about 10 boat lengths at the gun half a boat length behind it. This allowed Flyin Irish and some other J120s to go to weather of us. This allowed Capers to get up to our windward side. We stayed a little to left of rhumb to stay away from the Canadian shore a little later on. Unfortunately some in our class stayed a little to left of us before Southhampton and we rounded in 5th with Hot Ticket 15 minutes ahead. After we rounded we went to .75 oz and code 0. We were averaging 11 knots when the wind picked up. About 25 miles out from Spectacle Reef we got gusts up to 26 knots. I was down sleeping when I heard a bang that did not sound good. Our 3/4 oz. chute blew and the crew was beginning to gather it up. Once cleaned up we went to our code 0 again. The wind picked up even more. When I was driving we got Carinthia up to 18 knots and I was estatic. Mike took over and we then did 21.6 for at least for a minute and a half. Previous to this the fastest I ever had the boat was 16! I guess after 21.6 that just does not seem as fast. 15 minutes later our halyard blew so I dialed the boat down to a headsail. When the wind slowed down a bit we went back to the code 0 where at this point we could see Hot Ticket to leeward. This reinvigorated us to really work on boat speed.
We stayed even with Ticket for a time but the loss of our 3/4 hurt us and they pulled slowly ahead. At that point the wind came out of 260 degrees and we were tacking with for miles and miles. Finally about 8 miles out we tacked towards Canada and Ticket did not cover. I knew that the wind coming our of the west the best place to approach the island would be from the north. Ticket chose to tack along Boblo. We kept waiting for HT to announce their finish but it did not happen right to our finish. Some one looked behind and saw Merlin finishing just ahead of Ticket. Apparently Ticket thought Merlin was Carinthia. This lucky break allowed us to sneak in.

One thing of note. The entire crew stayed up the last fifteen hours and did all that was neccessary to keep the boat moving including huddling on the windward rear quarter to keep the boat upright. Great job guys!

Crew: Rod Weston, Colleen Scoville, Lynn Kotwicki, Baker Keeler, John Harvey, Mike Badendiek, Nancy Caldwell, Ben Thorsen, Nathan Caspers

Result: 2nd out of 9 boats
Link:
http://www.byc.com/mack05/results-south.cfm?Class=J120&Class2=OD

Runup to Bayview Mackinaw

Rodney sent me an email regarding Robs Amsler's comments in the freep. I guess you can't win anything in the paper. Its got to be on the water!

"Merlin, owned by Robert Amsler of Clinton Township, won the J-120 class last year and will be a contender this year. But it will have some tough competition. "Our standard best competition has been Hot Ticket up through the years, but this year, there are two big guns that are coming on strong, Carinthia and Night Moves," Amsler said. "If I weren't betting on me, I'd be betting on the two of them and probably Carinthia, because they are both doing great jobs." "All are Detroit-area boats."

Here is an excerpt from the Detroit News -

"Lynn Kotwicki of Royal Oak will crew on the 40-foot Carnithia, which will sail on the Southampton Course. She said the women who sail the Mackinac race make their teams stronger. "You'll find that the boats that have women perform better, in my opinion," Kotwicki said. "I think there is a better chemistry on those boats. The women help level out the macho-ness of the guys. And plus, people don't realize what a deep experience this is. You're with a group of people, racing in sometimes tough conditions, night and day. You really get to know people, and I think that's a very special experience. "It's like going away to adult summer camp. The sailing is great, the people are even better."

Grosse Pointe Sail Club Regatta

This was a series of 2 windward/leeward races. The first race was started with the wind only blowing maybe 3.5 to 4 knots. It was apparent that the committee boat side was heavily favored. On top of that the top pin placement boat said on the the radio that the wind was already at 90 degrees even though the course had been setup at 70 degrees. It was real important that we get on the committee boat (right) side of the course. There was a large opening on the committee boat side of the course but Night Moves also saw it and turned on our leeward side and filled the hole. I immediately put our boat to windward to slow us down so I would not be caught barging. This was enough for NM to get a boat length ahead of us on boat lane below us. Fortunately most of fleet was spread out on the line so they were already behind at the start. NM was eventually able to drive up into our lane so we had to tack. From this point on they covered us the rest of the race to win and we took second by 44 seconds.

The second race the committee boat was still favored in 6 knots of air and the rest of the fleet grasped this by coming in from the committee boat side. I decided early to stay more on the pin side on port and tacked to starboard when the first starboard tack boat reached us. This worked really well. We were on the line at the gun the left of all the boats. By doing this it also bottled up some of the boats that were coming in from the right. Starboard tack was favored by a little bit but the largest problem we had was Hot Ticket was to our right on the same step of the windward ladder. We came up to their line by alternately going a little low and fast and then punching up to get up a lane at a time. I was very concerned if they stayed there they would take us out past the layline and would make us follow them in to the windward pin. We managed enough to start back winding their sails and they were forced to tack early. They went through to leeeward of the the other 3 boat fleets so when we crossed again we were able to round ahead of them. The next downward leg we had all 4 J120's on our wind so I decided to jibe to get clear air. We were able to come in hot at the leeward pin and do a Mexican takedown. At this point coming out on port we had a NA40 Montombi ahead of us slowing our acceleration. We tacked and we just started covering Night Moves who we felt was our closest competition. We were able to hold him off the rest of the race and finish 40 seconds ahead of them in 1st. I think between strategy and crew work it was nearly a perfect race. If you take our total time for both race NM beat us by 4 seconds but the rules read if you are tied in points the last race takes precedence. Next race....Mackinaw!

Result: 1st out of 5 J120's for the series
Link: http://www.drya.org/race2005/Results/gpsc.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race

Course B a downwind race with only 1 or 2 knots of air. This is race I would rather forget. We got about 100 feet past the starting line and the wind died. We were drifting toward mark D and worked on getting to the right of the mark since the current was pulling us down. We managed to maneuver between Dirty Harry and Windshadow at the mark since Windshadow was going really slow. The next leg we were ahead of HT and NM and tacked to starboard so that we would not get caught on the wrong side of DP7 with the current. HT and MV kept on the board and managed to get lifted to the mark and we rounded dead last. At this point Flyin Irish dropped out and we jibed at the mark to catch a little wind but the other boats were just too far ahead. After DP5 we practically drifted to the finish line. Sometimes I just hate Lake St. Stupid. At least James's son JD had a good time and the fireworks were good.

Result: 4 out 5 J120s
Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Spring%20Race%207.pdf

DBC/GPC Regatta

The first leg of this triangular course was at 67 degrees with a favored left spinnaker run. The wind conditions 6 to 7 knots were at about 280 degrees with the wind tending to go north. The starting line was the seawall of the GPC and a pin with the pin side more favored. We watched the 6 starts before us to get an idea of what was favored since it was a pretty long starting line. Somehow or another I kept asking the order of the starts in case they were off and when it came to our time I saw the code 8 flag 30 seconds before the start and we got up to the pin on port as quick as we could. Hot Ticket was there on starboard but was little slow getting its spinnaker up. So we were able to jibe and get our spinnaker up at the same time with us being a little to windward. at first Merlin seemed to be going pretty fast but up ahead I saw the boats were in a giant hole. So instead of falling down to her I decided to go up to HT on our starboard. We were almost even when I saw the boats ahead getting headed to the point of putting up their genoas. This allowed us to prepare for when we hit the header we were able to change headsails almost instantaneously. The next part of the course was just trying to keep the boat going fast. Whenever we got a header (starboard tack was favored ) we tacked the boat to get in front of HT since they were the closest competition. We paid extra attention to headsail trim. The wind was changing much faster than I could turn the boat to adjust. We came to the top mark on port to cover HT and found out the course was to shortened directly back to the finish. We tacked at the mark, did a leeward set and jibed the boat. HT did a jibe set. We threaded our way through the fleet and HT had to do an emergency jibe to miss a freighter. This kept him behind us the entire way back to the club. About 200 yards from the finish line, a quarter a mile ahead of HT, the wind died. It was like hitting a wall. We changed to a genoa and the wind then backed again. Unfortunately HT came in with the wind and beat us by 1 boat length. We led the entire race. I guess when the wind gods decide to take a dump they can do it in strange places.

Result: 2nd out of 5 J120s

Link: http://www.drya.org/race2005/Results/gpcdbc.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race

This was a port favored tack to windward start with the committee boat at the left side of the line slightly favored. Wind was 10-12 knots out of the NW sunny conditions, course B. We worked our way up the line on starboard doing a couple of stop and goes. At the starting gun I had to punch up a little to clear the committee boat anchor line with Flyin Irish and Night Moves passing behind us at full speed on port. We continued for about 1500 yards and tacked to starboard. I saw a little more pressure on the left side of the course and I wanted to be left of the other J120's. Because Rod was constantly adjusting the main in puffs and lulls, we were able to tack before the top mark in front of FI and NM. We put up the .6 spinnaker nearly flawlessly. The next mark we needed to just turn down as we got lifted farther down the course. At the turn we did get stuck in some traffic and in particularly a green C&C35. Merlin had snuck in ahead and then he decided instead of coming up to get out of our way (we were leeward boat) he decided to come down to us. 40 boat lengths out he then started to scream at me about giving him room at the mark. I did reply that was not necessary until the 2 boat circle. I was tempted to have a crewman get the rule book and throw it to him because he just could not understand the concept. In any case Merlin managed to stay ahead of us at the next mark. It was a near fetch and we managed to stay a couple of lanes ahead of him. We almost managed to pass him but in the last quarter of the leg he came up and then dipped so we could not get an overlap with him. On the next leg Flyin Irish did manage to pass us to port and NM came screaming in from behind on our port. Past DP5 we got headed and we took our spinnaker down a little earlier than the other boats. We managed to nudge out NM and then nudged out Flyin Irish. The wind as usual was fluky and Mike and Colleen did a great job of keeping it trimmed by adjusting the headsail and lead to make our boat speed faster than NM and FI. With this 2nd and Jayhawker's 6th we are solidly in 1st place for the season.

Result: 2nd out of 6 J/120s
Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Spring%20Race%206.pdf