Rum Race 09/26/12

Florida evenings in late September are some of Natures finest artistic creations. Last night’s weather for the Rum Race in Sanford was a master piece. The temperature was comfortable, like favorite chair comfortable. The northeast sea breeze, is the most predictable and consistent of any of the possible wind patterns on Lake Monroe. A little squall washed the dust out of the air just before the competitors began to gather at the starting area. I have lived here since 1976, evenings like this are a large part of why. Lucky thirteen was the number of boats, and I was there to run Black Jack Pete through the spinnaker drill that we avoided on Lake Crescent last weekend.

The plan? Hit the start at full speed, kite flying, stay clear, fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. Therefore, step one is get the spinnaker up. Actually there are a bunch of little steps that have to take place first. Can’t do anything until you get to the right place to do it. That place had to be upwind of the start line, just far enough to get the spinnaker up and pulling with maximum horsepower. In addition we had to; Hit the start at full speed, kite flying, stay clear, exactly at twenty minutes after six (eastern daylight savings time). Remember? The plan.

We think we are the right place. We raise the spinnaker pole. Time to add some sail area. I have found the most snag free way to get the kite up, out of the companionway bag, is to take the chute out and set it on the deck behind the leeward shrouds, then pull the halyard. While Pete did that I pulled the guy, to move the windward clew to the pole. Perfect, half a boat length to the mark,  Byron had already started so the timing must be right. Why are both clews at the end of the pole? Sheets crossed, figure eight, too late now, we got to go. Pete went forward and was amazing. He wrestled and fought until the kite submitted, tapped out, and filled, each clew and the head moving to its own corner. A quick glance behind revealed Show Me’s massive blanket directly upwind. Up we go,  almost into the bad air of Ole Yeller, but not quite, there is a thin line of  nearly clear air, we latched on.

My spinnaker trimming skills got a significant upgrade during a Jager Race, watching Steve Hayden. I learned that over-trimming is really unacceptable, worse than that, it is slow. I emphasized that to Pete, and I think he got it. We did well down wind. We were preceded at the turning mark by Patrick’s Viper and it’s pretty new jib.

Maryann’s 29erXX, and Richards Hobie 21, also rounded in front of us as we should be. Strangely they did not seem to be that far ahead. I think even Byron’s Force 5 rounded ahead of us, no problem, a mile and a half of upwind would take care of that. I was a little surprised that more boats did not tack quickly after rounding. The fundamentals that I know of say, sail the long tack first.  Upwind, there was a little problem with the jib, it seemed to be faster when stalled somewhat (leeward tells dancing). I don‘t know if it was over-trimmed, under-trimmed, or the draft was incorrect, or improperly positioned. I decided to focus on moving big butt out further, and it seemed to work. I did not really expect to make the finish line on one tack, so I took a bite to windward periodically and worked diligently at taking full advantage of every lift. The totally predictable condominium header landed on us just as I was working on getting to windward of one of the anchored powerboats/obstructions. We eased the sails, headed off and squirted out around the canoe/tender tethered to the back of the inconvenient cruiser. The lift needed to make the mark from that position was not available, so we short-tacked at the mark and finished in 00:35:22. Not bad, the Viper, the 29erXX, and the Hobie 21, had already finished, Show Me, and Monkey Butt were close behind.

We had sailed well, clocked a decent time, provided a decent spinnaker lesson for Black Jack Pete and had a really fun race. It was not until I pushed the scoring button on the Sailwave software that I realized we had won. That was cool. Then Ariel picked number 1 out of the box so we got the Rum also. This was a very good day.