We came, we saw, we conquered...and then we had to quit
(unfortunately!). That pretty much
summed up what was a beautiful Saturday in May.
Here's the details...
We had six crew aboard MB as we departed Elliott Bay Marina
around 8am including Adam, Mark, Nick, Pete, Jason and Shawn. We set the sails early and tacked around prior
to the 9 am start in front of Shilshoal.
All the usual suspects were present and we looked forward to a long 16
mile beat to Point Robinson at the sound end of Vashon Is. The winds were from the south at 10 kts for
the start, and projected to diminish as the day progressed, ultimately
forecast to die off at 2 pm and then potentially fill from the north at 4
pm. There were two starts, with the
faster boats on the long course departing around 9 am and the rest of us, which
numbered well above 20 boats, departing five minutes thereafter. Due to all the traffic we were a few seconds
late to the line but were able to sneak past the committee boat, then tack off into a clear lane for a long ride south. Monkeybones does well in
light winds and we were near the front of our pack as we worked past West
Point, then over to Bainbridge, up past Blakely Rock and around the south tip
of Bainbridge. We slowly gained on many
boats in our Group 4, but couldn't separate until we passed Blake Island. At that point the winds were starting to
dissipate and we were able to dial MB in such that she was powering along at
1.0 to 1.5 kts above wind speed. The
effect was that we put the hammer down on the fleet and had massive separation. Our
main competition, which included Different Drummer, Crovo and Pegasus tacked
back towards Vashon while we continued east towards Three Tree Point. We got great lift behind the point and were
able to round it with only two tacks and headed back towards Vashon and the
windward mark at Pt Robinson. We were on
the east side in a solid 6 kts of wind while we could see it fading to the west,
which caught out most of our competition.
We tacked a few times to stay in the pressure and rounded the mark in
second place behind Flim Flam. Amazingly
we had also passed many of the fast boats that started five minutes ahead of
us, including Bravo Zulu and Eye Candy.
We headed back home with the spinnaker on a tight
reach, following the rumb line in the fading breeze. Monkeybones does well upwind, but with her
fractional rig, she struggles heading downwind, especially in light air. We held even about a half mile behind Flim
Flam, and watched as Pegasus, a half mile back, slowly reeled us in. The rest of the fleet was at least a mile
back as the three of us made our way past Three Tree Point. Shortly thereafter the wind quit altogether,
around 2:30 pm, right as predicted. In
the meandering breeze Pegasus was able to drift past us and we were both
gaining on Flim Flam. Unfortunately,
several of the crew had evening commitments and were pushing the limits with
wives and families just to be on the boat.
As the clock ticked past 3 pm towards 4 pm, and with 12 miles to go to
the finish with the boat speed between 2 and 3 kts, it became apparent that we
were going to have to pull out of the race and give up what was clearly a top
three finish. Around 4pm we dropped the spinnaker and fired
up the iron jib and headed for Elliott Bay.
About a mile into our return journey ripples on the water marked the
northerly creeping south, just as predicted.
We looked back to watch Flim Flam and Pegasus drop their spinnakers, raise
their jibs and start working their way north.
Those two boats would finish around 7 pm. The next fastest boat in our group finished 7
hours later - around 2pm in the morning.
We would have clearly had a top three finish, which would have qualified us for the Grand Prix and also have put
us at no worse than 4th in the overall SYC Tri Island Series standings. Truly disappointing, but we all know how we
did, and we accomplished the prime objective, which was to have fun.
Here's a great shot of Monkeybones and crew showing our good (starboard) side...
No comments:
Post a Comment