Seventeen boats made it out for a lovely afternoon of racing on Shilshole Bay this afternoon. Wendy and I ran a mix of races, using the Sloop Tavern start mark and one of our own buoys as the starting line, with a mark to weather. The fleet enjoyed 10 to 15 knots of northerly, with the tide going slack towards the middle of the series. We used the starting line as a leeward gate for several of the races. This made it possible to keep the whole fleet to windward of the chase boat- a safe way to run races with one boat. On a couple of races, we ran the Grady White offshore for the fleet to use as a reaching mark. The final race was on the longer side for the day, with a beat to Meadow Point, followed by a port rounding of the original weather mark, and a reach into Shilshole. We sailed for about two hours.
A couple of things we noticed about folks who were sailing well.
Andrew L. favored starting at what would be the boat end of the line. Although the leeward end of the line was slightly favored, Andrew preferred being free to tack to the break-water when he chose rather than risking being hung out to the left by boats to weather. At the tide change, Andrew made the most of a lane of upwind current, tacking often to stay in the favorable current.
Jay sailed flattest of everyone upwind and had very good speed. His vang was one of the tightest. Downwind, Jay favors deep broad reaching angles. While lots of other sailors hunted hard for waves and did lots of S turns, Jay’s sailing was notable for his lack of turns and good speed. Mike Johnson continues to impress with his ability to drive waves downwind.
Charles, Jay, and John sail with the backs of their legs pressed hard against the deck of their boats. There isn’t any daylight between the backs of their knees and the deck. This looked fast to me.
Finally, the best insurance each of us has of the continued strength of this sailing fleet is merely showing up to race. It’s great to see every single one of you on the racecourse!
Joe B will be running the races on November 7th. Anyone else interested in running the boat, please drop me a line and I’ll work with you to set it up.
Finally, a big thank you to Wendy for showing up and lending a hand. I’m a very lucky man.
Dan