Race Summary
by Bill Nichols
The forecast predicted good winds and lots of down wind sailing. This turned out to be correct. For the start on noon Saturday June 12th, we had 17 knot winds from behind. We were first over the line after the gun. We set the 1/2 oz. spinnaker and took off. The tide never turned against us because of the wind from the north.
Just before dawn the next morning (Sunday 6/13) we had covered the 70 or so miles to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and after that we were in the ocean. For the remaining 30 miles southeast to the Chesapeake Light we had to drop the spinnaker and sail with the #2 jib.
The seas were rough and confused with 4 foot waves. Around 1:00 PM (Sunday) we made the left turn at the light toward Newport. The wind was coming from where we wanted to go. This brought the full effect of the rough seas to bear on the boat and crew.
By 2:00 PM the wind had clocked around enough for us to set our smallest starcut spinnaker in the 21 knot breeze. After only a few minutes, the wind continued to clock and we decided to put up a bigger spinnaker, our 3/4 oz. called the "Pirate". We did the sail change with the spinnakers, this maneuver is called a peel. The Pirate powered the boat nicely. Too bad that it only lasted a few minutes before it blew out. The corner of the sail tore off leaving the Pirate flailing in the wind. We brought it down as fast as we could and put the starcut back up. This was a major failure because we did not have a spare spinnaker that would take the conditions. The skipper gathered the pieces and started sewing the sail back together. It took about 5 hours to repair.
men can sew !
By mid-day Monday (6/14), the wind and seas had calmed down enough to fly the repaired Pirate spinnaker. We were making great time, averaging between 8 and 9 knots. Early the next morning, on Tuesday (6/15), we were approaching Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island). We were sailing almost down wind, which is a difficult point of sail to hold given the ocean conditions. A slight error by the helmsman caused the spinnaker to wrap around the rigging, and it would not unwrap by itself. It took the whole crew almost 30 minutes to fix.
We passed Block Island and were heading toward the finish line 20 miles distant when the spinnaker wrapped again (different helmsman). This time it would not come down. We were almost to the point of cutting it off the headstay when the skipper came up with a great idea. We twisted the sail tight like a piece of licorice, unwrapped it from the headstay, and dropped it to the deck. We then put up the starcut and sailed to the finish by 6:30 AM on Tuesday (6/15).