Crescent City Yacht Club hosted the Fifth Annual Bear Island Regatta to a record turn-out on Saturday September 22, 2012. Two open Classes divided at the 20 foot waterline competed to get their name posted on the Golden Goat Head Trophy.

The Trophy

Crescent City Yacht Club always provides a most genuine and generous venue. I had intended to bring my own boat but the universe chose to offer me an even better opportunity.

The search for a keel cable wire block to repair my San Juan on Friday yielded only a segue article between the Wednesday Rum Race and Saturday’s regatta. At 5:55 A.M. I was awakened by a text message of “I’m not going, good luck” from my potential cohort. My need for literary inspiration, lifted me out of bed, got me cleaned, dressed, and caffeinated and seated behind the wheel of the Suburban. It fell short of causing me to attach a marginally uncomfortable boat to the trailer hitch. Single handed discomfort in a distance race with predicted winds of three knots was less than inspirational.

On the road, in a minute

A convoy was scheduled to meet at Monroe Harbour Marina. I exited I-4 and said
Good Morning Lake Monroe.

Good Morning Lake Monroe

At the ramp three rigs had gathered, Show Me, Ol Yeller, and Vulcan Mermaid, were finalizing preparations, for the ride north to the Crescent City traffic light. It was still early enough that enthusiasm was limited.

Too early for pictures…

At the ramp in Crescent City several boats were already there or arriving, and  my intention was really just to gather some info, take some pictures and observe some of the wildlife. I suppose I may have considered the possibility of catching a ride. Vessels already rigged included the Daysailer Red Witch, a Hobie 18 and a SJ 21 named Black Jack that belongs to Pete and Susan Owens. I made some rigging observations and took photos.

clean clean clean

Wile-E, Just Us, White Hawk, Point Blank, No Not Yet, and two Windrider 17’s appeared rigged and launched prior to the 10:15 skipper’s meeting. The races was intended to be relatively long, with the option of shortening the course based on the first boat not reaching the northern most mark within three hours of the start. Pete and Susan offered me a ride and I accepted. Black Jack is really tricked out and I hoped to find something useful for my boat and possibly share some of my experience, especially in the area of spinnakers.  The reverse handicap put our start 4:31 behind the first boat, and we were several seconds late. Some others were much later than that. The wind was light but steady until we got North of Bear Island and the distance to the turning mark was much further than I had expected. Tactics became dramatically simplified, keep the boats moving. Pete and Susan were great to sail with, being well prepared for the conditions, and extremely hospitable.

Team Black Jack

High heat and no air can be very frustrating, good company was especially helpful to ignore the pain and focus on the possibility. White Hawk (C22), Point Blank (H23), and Just Us (SJ 21) went to the western shoreline, Ol Yeller (SJ 21) and Show Me (P23) were enticed by the ripples near the eastern shore line. The puff that was closest to Black Jack was right in the middle, so that is where we went. The west group got the first advantage and made huge gains. I thought they were nuts until I began to realize how far it must be to the mark. We were a little behind the east shore duo for a while, then we got a little puff and closed the gap. The next hour was an exercise in concentration and observation, trying to nurse every inch of distance, and every micro-knot of speed out of every gram per square meter of pressure. During a particularly long session of going nowhere Pete elected to change to the genoa, which turned out to be an excellent choice for us. After another hour of debilitating slowness the wind chose to ignore the west shore altogether. Ol Yeller and Show Me increased their lead until the boat speed exceeded the wind speed and they parked. We almost caught Show Me, and had an extended conversation with Wile E, as they rolled us. It’s very frustrating to have too little wind to defend. After two or three eternities Fisk and Paulie rounded the mark. Within the next hour, Show Me, Wile-E and Black Jack did likewise. The clouds had begun to darken and hints of wind trickled in, but it was a good while before any wind actually got to the boat. The first boat to get real wind appeared to be the Hobie 18 as it went up on one hull and then over near the east shore. The pressure landed on Black Jack at ten to twelve knots. The course was now a broad reach and the spinnaker was an option but not a very attractive one. The wind was puffy from some very dark clouds and having been slowly roasted for the previous three hours, I admit my heart was not in it. More speed may have been possible with more sail but we were finally cooking something besides flesh, so we stayed with the genoa. It became an excellent chance to explain “up n the lulls, off in the puffs”, and plenty of distance to put it to practice. Wile E had raised the big blue kite and finished somewhere off in the distance. Andy and Diane

My battens are too long too.

sneaked by Fisk at the finish, and Black Jack held off the Vulcan Mermaid. I am not sure that the exhilarating finish made up for the brutality of the first three hours, but: The company was great, the food was excellent, I did not stay to close out Three Bananas, but I know how that goes and it is best that I don’t have that much fun very often. I expect the Crescent City Yacht Club will post the scores. Special thanks to CC-YC and everyone that attended, supported, and managed. It was a top notch regatta. Extra special thanks to Pete and Susan for letting me tag along.