2024 FBYC Offshore Fall Series #1

The first of the Fall Series for the Offshore division at Fishing Bay Yacht Club started with a light air forecast. While the forecast had looked better earlier in the week, we arrived Saturday morning for very light winds and maybe some wind mid-afternoon. The RC postponed us ashore for a bit before sending us out to the course to postpone there so we could be ready if/when the wind did come up.

I was sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm with Todd, Jen, Holly, Rick and Ron. We floated around a bit until well after noon. There was some discussion among the fleet of how late in the day to wait for wind. As it neared 1pm the wispers of wind we were seeing were coming from the right direction.  1 knot, then 2 knots and then 4 knots of wind. That was still going to be tough going with anywhere from half a not to a full knot of current in the same direction of the wind, but at least it looked promising.  Soon the wind was continuing to increase and the RC started to set up a course.

As this was happening many of the sailboats were putting mainsails up. We put our main up and decided to do a little upwind practice.  We missed the radio announcement about starting and by the time we heard anything on the radio, it was for the first warning.  By this time we were a few hundred yards up the course. We quickly turn on our engine for a half a minute and shut it off just before the prep signal. We were still well upwind of the start in only a few knots of wind so we put our spinnaker up to get back as quickly as we could. The race started and we dodged the boats coming upwind on starboard as we continued downwind on port to get behind the line.  The fleet had an almost 2 minute head start on us by the time we got back to the line, doused the spin and rounded the pin to start.

The port tack was pretty close to directly into the current with a south east breeze. Orion was going this way well ahead of us, but most boats had tacked out to stay in the middle of the course. Knowing we were behind and it would be advantageous to go into the current first and not get swept up the bay we continued this until we thought we’d be on the layline. Even Orion tacked well before we did.  That move paid off, we crossed the entire fleet except for Orion who was easily 2 minutes around the mark ahead of us and Afterthought who was just ahead of us at the mark.  We would have been well on our way downwind, only we mis-judged the current at the mark and hit it as we rounded.  We held off on our spin hoist and by the time we did our turn Nanuq and Excitation were right there rounding the mark. They headed North with the current on starboard and we quickly got our spin on up and gybed to port. That worked well and they fell behind us when they eventually gybed to port. The wind was still light and with shifting winds the RC shortened the course at this mark. We would end up 3^rd behind Orion and Afterthought.

We floated around the starting area while the other fleets finished and the course was reset. The wind did fill some more to 6-7 knots and more out of the south. At the start of the second race, most of the 7-boat PHRF-A fleet spread out down the line. That gave us a perfect opening to time the start right at the pin. Excitation was just behind us at the pin. With Orion just below us and Excitation just behind us – both boats who point exceptionally well compared to us upwind, we quickly tacked out before we got sandwiched. This took us mostly into the current towards Gwynn’s island.

Like the first race we kept our tacks low and worked our way out towards the layline. This time the rest of the fleet didn’t go so hard left, but with the start we had and good speed we crossed most of the fleet. Only we didn’t quite get to the layline and had to do a short tack near the mark and by then we were ducking the other boats on starboard who had been just behind us.  We rounded 4^th just behind the other boats and headed downwind.

By now the crew work on Battle Rhythm was working well and we were efficiently getting the spin up and down and not loose any ground to the fleet. We continued the second lap much like the first and finished just behind the pack of 3 boats behind us taking 4^th for the race and finishing 3^rd overall on the day.

We were glad we all stayed out there as the wind really did fill in to a raceable pressure and it was a gorgeous day. Thanks to Gene and crew for running race and Todd for having me aboard.

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