Duck Island Yacht Club Overnight Race, 15-16 June. Short course, only 40nm, Westbrook, CT to Block Island RI., 3rd place but what a fantastic couple days of doublehanded sailing and racing!! Even both deliveries were sweet sailing in sunshine and good breeze (as opposed to once again motoring in dense fog). 22nm delivery to Westbrook so fast under asym we pulled into Pilots Point for some tuna tartar appetizers before the race, nice! Won the start on port at pin, 7 or 9 short tacks inside Long Sand Shoal then one long tack thru Plum Gut, another at 1GI then straight to Block getting lifted as predicted. Everything worked out fine with new crew on his first DH race. OMG the milky way was unreal, haven’t seen it that clear and extending right down to the horizon since the winter. Best sailing of the season too. Picked up a mooring on Block at 0245, slept till 7, breakfast at Narranaganset then fast ride back to Noank under code zero.
Spring Offsoundings, 8-9 June, 3rd on Fri, 10th (ughh!) on Sat out of 13, 7th overall. Friday was a good day, great party but post-mortem indicates we lost race on Sat in the first 1/2mile og the (shortened) round the island.. oh well..good lessons learned..we had a blast though!
also made this documentary
Block Island Race, 25-27 May, 186nm, 4th out of 10 boats in double handed class, using endorsed IRC rating and class sails with my friend and awesome sailor, Leszek Wolkowski. Friday afternoon start followed by 47 hours of frustratingly light breeze (except on east side of Block), lots of fog and humidity, with a chewed up (literally!) class jib. All 3 kites employed countless times with lots of foredeck work, trying to keep boat moving at all times, finally excellent battery management, much better food and of course not enough sleep. My only class jib is a very well used 2003 North whose furler shackle released during the singlehand 10hr delivery down, while motor sailing. The jib ended up under the boat with the head of the sail wrapped around at least the shaft if not the prop and stopped the engine. While getting out dry suit I had the idea to start engine in neutral, go into reverse for just a second or two which thankfully freed the sail. Inspection later showed no serious damage but that’s the jib we raced with! Here's a short video during the race on Sunday am, about 15nm from the finish during a period of steady breeze which unfortunately did not last which was par for the course all weekend! Here’s picture of us at sunrise on Sunday morning taken by Geoff on Gadzooks.
 WOW can't believe I haven't added any entries here since June...that'll have to wait for a cold and snowy January night..basically we had raced alot and had great fun. Real quick: We did win the Greenport Brooklyn Ocean Cup for the 5th year in a row and won the 2012 ECSA Distance trophy for the first time but no other podiums finishes worth mentioning. Also won the Vineyard race but on a J/92 instead of Dark N Stormy. |
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