Single Hand/Double Hand Race

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Due to the tide, we pushed off the dock at 10:30 pm Friday night to anchor out for the evening. The evening was quiet with a slight breeze. Saturday morning blazed sunny and HOT, giving us a hint of what the day had in store for us. We motored sailed north from Fort Lauderdale with a south to southeast breeze blowing under 10 knots.

We arrived at HI around 10 am. There were 4 boats milling about for the start of the Single Hand race: Aireeze, Contrails, Duet and Endurance. Since we were doubling up the races today, and we didn’t want to wear anyone out or cause heat exhaustion, the competitors agreed to a single time around the course for the Single Hand Race. The Single Hand boats had a clean start with Contrails taking the lead and Endurance close to their stern. The race was quick with 3 of the 4 boats finishing the 4.6-mile course within 55 minutes. The Single Hand competitors finished within minutes of each other. A 30-minute break was taken for much needed water and food replenishment before we started the Double Hand race.

For the Double Hand race, we swapped Duet and Aireeze for Imagine and Commotion. The Race Committee set the course for twice around the course. A southerly start to the east virtual mark to HI back to the start line and around the course, marks to starboard. 12:25 was the 5-minute prep with a start at 12:30. The crew of Commotion had the start line marked on the chart and a timer was running to time our distance from the mark. Sailboat racing is all about practice, practice, practice and practice makes perfect. We were out of practice and handling the boat double handed which adds another level of complication to the race. We gibed to the start line and realized we were 2 minutes late to the start. The boat powered up, the clock ticked down and we slowly chipped away at the clock. We crossed the start line late and headed to the virtual mark. The other boats were able to point higher, which we are used to that. Having the boat in full cruise mode, full water, 100 gallons of fuel and an outboard on the stern did not make for a screaming fast race boat. The wind gods were with us and we had a perfect angle on the virtual mark and got around it first. We headed to HI with Endurance, Contrails and Imagine on our heels. Endurance passed us on the inside, and we rounded HI within feet of each other for a spirited run to the start mark.

We rounded the start mark with Endurance a few boats lengths ahead. Off we went to the virtual mark. We had to tack to get to the mark. We tacked ahead of Contrails and mistake 1, the jib sheet jammed in the block and prevented the jib from freely tacking. Mistake 2 was bad communication when I released the wheel thinking Ross was taking it and he wasn’t. We over rotated and stalled as Contrails was coming fast at us. We got the boat tacked but caused Contrails to have to alter course. Contrails handled the foul in a friendly manner, and we continued sailing. Even though Contrails waived off the foul, we proceeded to perform our penalty turn (720), radioed the beach committee of our penalty turns and proceeded to HI. We finished the race third, frustrated with our mistakes but happy for the fact that we were able to complete the race and enjoy a glorious day of racing with friends.

Thank you to the Beach Committee and competitors. Thank you, Eduardo and Eva Rabadan, for hosting the after-race party.