The Fourth and Final September Six Pack Series Race. I Am Glad This One Is Done!

Tonight was the last race of the four race September Six-Pack series.

About an hour before I was ready to leave the house, a package arrived. My autopilot computer was finally back from the repair facility in New Hampshire. It had been acting up for several months. I performed diagnostic tests and determined that the fault was not in the compass. The tech at Raymarine confirmed that the problem was probably in the computer. So, in mid August I sent the unit to the repair facility. They repaired several circuits and installed the latest software.

I hurried down to the boat and reinstalled the computer and got underway to perform the calibration procedure. Once that was done, I headed to Port Orchard. The autopilot worked great, probably better than it ever has. It was nice to have it again during the delivery. It is illegal to race with it.

The race got underway in about 6 knots of wind out of the SE. I had a OK start just behind Tantrum II. I was able to go through there lee and pulled ahead. Rounded the first and set the spinnaker for the run north. About half way to the next mark the wind lightened and came ahead. Up went the jib and down came the spinnaker.

I worked through the two classes of boats that had started ahead of me. I got to the mark first and rounded it to port. I sailed about 50 yards toward the finish when the boat behind me informed me that I HAD ROUNDED THE MARK THE WRONG WAY! How stupid! I jibed around to reround the mark . Tantrum II, Falcon and Tantalus got past me before I rerounded. Those three boats stayed ahead of me and set spinnakers. I did not set a spinnaker, but reached up toward the left shore. I got some new wind and closed a lot on Tantalus, but could not pass them. Tantrum II won my class, Tantalus was second, I was third. Falcon was a division II boat and won their class and won overall. For the series, I won Division 1 and probably overall.

And with the race tonight, the summer evening series are over and we go back to weekend racing. The June and September Series were a lot of fun and a good chance to get out on the water. And now the rest of the story: I sailed all eight races alone. There should have been no way I could have won almost every race.

Oh, and the delivery home in the dark was great. Calm , warm and a huge full moon lighting the way!

Approaching the first mark.

Picture credits: Robert Hennessy

Rounding the first mark.

Photo Credits: Robert Hennessy