2004-2005 InterClub Results, Day 2, November 28

Finally! After coming close several times, and even tying Jesse last year but losing the tiebreaker, we finally managed to win an IC day outright. Alright, maybe we wouldn't have won if Jesse hadn't wiped out in the last race, but hey, we'll take it!

Speaking of wiping out, the day started off with a little excitement when I thought it'd be smart to practice a couple heavy air gybes on the way out to the race. Not too smart. On the first one, I oversteered it and we dunked the rail, only saving it from totally flipping by Katheryn and I both diving to the high side, where I then proceeded to get smacked squarely in the side of head by the gybing boom. "Oh yeah," I thought, "the main hadn't come across yet." While I sat in the back of the boat seeing stars, Katheryn promptly bailed most of the 8 inches of water that we took on during that graceful maneuvre. Don't worry, I told Katheryn, I won't let that happen again. Not having sailed much together, and never in heavy air, I could only imagine what she must have been thinking. Probably thought I was crazy for even being out there.

It didn't start out that windy actually, but the puffy westerly seemed to get bigger and bigger as the day went on. First two races we didn't really sail that well, decent starts near the pin end, but just didn't seem to have the speed and Jesse and one of the Navy boats got us in each of those triangle course races. These by the way, we were welcome change from the W-L, especially in the big breeze, as you only had to gybe once, and it kept you from sailing too deep and on the edge. Kudos to Alex on RC for running those.

In the races we did well in, we seemed to be up on the line at full speed and with a clear lane. Ok, so it wasn't that hard with only 5 boats, but somehow I did manage to blow a couple starts too. I was busy trying to fix a shroud which I had apparently rigged incorrectly. Never did get that thing fixed on the water so we were lucky it didn't pop while sailing. In most races, it seemed like the left was paying most of the time on the 1st beat with big ole' lefty puffs coming dpwn main street and out of Spa Creek. But mostly the day seemed to be about hiking hard upwind, tacking when it seemed like a good idea in some shifts and to stay in touch with other boats, (easing the main alot out of the tacks to stay on your feet worked well), and then staying in control on the reaches or downwinds (not all that easy really).

Katheryn Hansen, who's sailing with me this year, did a fantastic job with hiking, balancing downwind, and playing the vang and CB. Usually we'd pull on some more vang and drop some board to at least 3/4 down before the puffs hit, and then ease off vang a couple inches and raise board to about 1/2 in the lulls.

Last race was perhaps the craziest IC race I've been in. While a huge 20-22 knot puff blasted thru the starting line, Jesse yells over to me, " What do you want to do Jon?! I think I said something like, "what the hell, let's do it!" So Alex cranked up the Ollie. Only the girls from the NA, Jesse, and myself were left. I was over near the pin with 20 secs left, tried to tack but thought I might be able to shoot the pin and make it around, got caught in irons and had a terrible start, several BLs behind both of them. Jesse got out to the favored left and had a huge, 15-20 BL lead over Navy girls at the top. We rounded right behind but hit the mark trying to shoot it. What a disaster I thought, and even considered just sailing right in. But seeing that we still weren't that far behind Navy, I decided to try to catch them. About 30 seconds later, we see Jesse crash n' burn, and thought "Hmm, what a shame." The girls exectued their gybe at the mark, and after seeing that Jesse and Lesley were ok, we did the same. About 10 seconds later, a Lochness monster puff hit us and the boat lifted a little higher, lurched forward, and it was all I could do to just keep it upright. One degree left or right and we were toast. Closed to within 3-4 BLs at the bottom mark, tacked immediately out left, and crossed them by 5-6 at the finish pin. Damn was that fun! Even if we only beat 2 boats in the race. It was one wild ride!

An absolutely righteous day of IC sailing, even if my legs (and head) were throbbing that night. Hope to see some more of you folks out real soon.

Oh, and Jesse, next time I guess you'll think twice about that last race in 20+ :)

But I still won't.

Jon

 Day 2
      Races =        7
      Boats =        5
      Total =        42
                                                        Low  High
 Place  Skipper   Crew    Bow # 1   2   3   4  5  6  7  Pt   Pt	  %
 1    	Guth    	Hanson 	695   3   3   2   1  1  2  1  13   36   0.857
 2   		Falsone 	Cook   	802   1   1   1   3  3  1  6  16   33   0.786
 3  	                 		NA1   2   2   3   2  4  3  6  22   27   0.643
 4    	O'Bryan        		NA2   4   4   4   4  2  4  2  24   25   0.595
 5    	Mutnick 	Dorton 	705   5   5   5   5  6  6  6  38   11   0.262