Never ever, ever, ever give up

Jamie and I substituted for Mike on the beach committee for races 5 and 6. Light winds SE at 6 kts and a strong Gulfstream current close to shore made for a frustrating day for all of the racers. Jim called for our usual triangle race course; southerly start, out to the east mark then around the HI buoy and back to the finish. Also known as the Dorito course. The distance is 4.6 miles. And then the trouble started. Contrails performed a beautiful start but unfortunately it was at 1059 rather than 1100. They were well down the course before they realized their mistake and returned for a proper start. No Compromise, limited in maneuvering due to the light wind, was also over early but made a proper start straight away. This allowed Summer Wind and Chasing Blue to get a “head start” on the course. No Compromise was also enjoying a huge jump on his nemesis Contrails. The SE wind forced all the boats to repeatedly tack away from the shore. As No Compromise first sailed east he encountered the Gulfstream and was swept north towards the Deerfield pier. And that was the end of his lead over Contrails. The rest stayed closer to shore and plotted their eventual turn to try and make the east mark. It was an exhausting day for the crews with all that tacking. At one point Chasing Blue was on a port tack and between the current and the light wind he was not moving forward or backward through the water, only sideways.

Because of the time required to complete race 5, the next race was limited to going to the Hi buoy and back (no dreaded east mark). This is also known as the hotdog course. As usual the winds for the second race had picked up (to 12 kts). Chasing Blue forced No Compromise to maneuver away from the start line under the starboard tack vs port tack right of way. But soon enough No Compromise was chasing down Contrails.

The never give up award goes to Chasing Blue. As many of you know Chasing Blue is a beautiful 45ft cruising catamaran. After encouragement to try racing they have entered the Spring series with Terry Usher as their racing mentor. As mentioned earlier they had a frustrating day trying to make the dreaded east mark. They made three attempts and never threw in the towel! Well done Chasing Blue.

On a final note, our series races are a lot of fun. Full of mistakes and frustrations even for the experienced crews. Individual boat ratings are adjusted by computer for each individual race to make it more competitive. The adjusted time differences between first and second place was 65 seconds on race 5 and 90 seconds on race 6. Never, ever, ever, ever give up! There is no need to race every race. If you have a tough time making the 1100 start then come out by noon for the second race of the day. The winds are always better for the second race anyway. Or just come out for the first race if that meets your needs.