2014 FBYC Cut Channel Race
Saturday was the Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and I was aboard Double Eagle with Sam Mitchener and 7 others for the race. We couldn’t have asked for much better weather with 10-20 knots out of the East with sunny skies for the 29nm course. We were among 2 other boats in the PHRF-A fleet and 18 total boats in the race.
We had a good start down by the pin right alongside the other J-109 Afterthought. The first half of the race was a beat and for the first 2 miles Afterthought inched ahead of us to where they were 5 lengths ahead of us as we turned around C and headed for mark L. As the wind built we had a better sail selection and a little more weight and were within a couple boat lengths by the time we got to L.
Afterthought crossing us on the way to Q:
From mark L we kept going south while Afterthought tacked and went North as we both made our way east across the bay to mark Q. The current made all the difference pushing us closer to the mark and we were .8 mi ahead at Q. As the wind eased and the conditions began to favor Afterthought for the 2nd half of the race they chewed some of that back and we crossed the finish line with a 3:15 minute lead and won our class and had the fastest corrected time of the whole fleet.
I ended up driving upwind and the reach for about 40 minutes which was good to give Sam a break and to see how the sails were affecting the trim. Mayo, Bonnie, Ed, Matt L, Chris T, Holly F sailed well together and were fun to sail with. All in all it was a good race and a good result – putting Double Eagle into contention later this year for the long distance series.
Our Course (blue) and our track (red dotted):
Leave a Reply