Race Notes: 6/6/2009

It was one of THOSE races. Light air for St Helens, and blowing straight down the river in the same direction as the heavy current. 7 knots air from the South, 1.5 to 2 knots current

Crew aboard, Libby, Rich, Zach, Brad, Rebecca and myself.

It was a long distance race, down to Martin Slough and back. A downwind start, reverse handicap style made things interesting. Slowest boat starts first, fastest boat starts last, theoretically all boats finish at the same time. The advantage for a long distance race is that you place where you finish. No one has to keep track of the finish times or calculate the results after the race.

We started all the other boats, and then started ourselves, 22 minutes after TGilli and Pizzaz. It was a lot like the teacup ride at Disneyland. The cups spin around and move up and down, but all move around at exactly the same speed. So it was riding the fast current all the way down to Martin Slough. The boats all moved down river at almost the same speed. If a boat started 20 minute before we did, they got to the mark 20 minutes before we did. On the way down to the mark I was saying this race was going to be decided against the current on the way back.

Little did I realize how true that statement was. We did a nice take down, (good job crew!) a seamanlike rounding at full speed, right at the mark, a smooth first tack and cleared the mark on the way back up river. And just like that we were out in front. Clearing the mark allowed us to get back to the Oregon shore into lighter current and commence short tacking for the next 4 hours back to the finish.

Things we did right:
Nice spinnaker work, an excellent gybe and a nice takedown at a critical moment.
Good crew communication with new folks on the boat.
Short tacking up the Oregon shore out of the current.

Things to improve:
We need to mark all the control lines so folks know where to stop pulling.
Practice steering in light air, or maybe just more time sailing the Genoa.