The forecast for the day was for 5-7 knot winds from the SW possibly shifting to NW later in the day. There was also a chance of rain showers. The forecast was accurate as the winds were 5-9 knots at the start from the SW. The sun was out and even though it was a bit cool, the sun felt nice.
We got a good starboard tack start about half way down the starting line. Dulcinea(J105) started just below us and Reign Maker(C&C37/40 XL) tried a port tack start at the pin end. Reign Maker had to give way to Dulcinea, had to tack away and circle back to the line. After the start, Dulcinea and us continued on starboard toward Bainbridge Island. We were looking for a lift under Battle Pt and stronger winds. The rest of our class started on port tack down the line near the boat end.
We tacked to port and took a long tack to the Gilberton shore east of Brownsville. We gained on Dulcinea and Reign Maker who both took short tacks toward the east. The Boss(J35) was below us and when they finally tacked to starboard, they passed well behind us.
We rounded the University Point buoy first in our class, set the spinnaker and reached toward the Bainbridge Shore. The Boss rounded a quarter of a mile behind us and sailed more dead downwind. During our first jibe, we had an issue with the spinnaker pole jaws stuck open and we lost some time getting it resolved. We jibed again at Battle Pt. The wind lightened some and we sailed hotter angles to keep our speed up. After three more jibes, we rounded the Pt Bolin daymark well ahead of The Boss.
After a smart rounding, we had a short beat around Pt Bolin and then started reaching west toward the entrance to Liberty Bay. We ran almost dead downwind to get around the Keyport Pier, then we reached up again to keep our speed up. Just passed the Keyport Docks, we jibed again and headed into Liberty Bay. Hear the wind shifted forward and soon we needed to put the jib up. We dropped the spinnaker on deck. The rained started coming down for a short time and when it quit, the wind started coming aft again. We reset the spinnaker and carried it to the finish in a dying breeze.
We finished at least 10 minutes ahead of The Boss and much farther ahead of Dulcinea. They should place 2nd and 3rd respectively We saved our time on all the boats behind us for the class and overall wins.
In Divisions II and III, the wind lightened and many boats were caught in the channel entering Liberty Bay. The Division II boat Falcon(Cal 9.2) managed to lead their class home by a big margin and won their division.
It was a great day to be on the water. The light variable winds made it challenging to maintain good boat speed, but our crew of Jim, Kathleen and Michael did a great job and stayed focused to the task.
Results can be found here(when they are posted): http://www.wscyc.net/WSSA/results.htm
Our track for the day.
Good job Dan!
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