As a follow-up to my post from Sunday it turns out there is a photo of the yacht coming up the channel through the race course.
I believe this was taken from the weather mark boat. At the point the picture was taken, I’m already along side the yacht, and my boat is on its side and I’m sitting on top waiting to right it.
Day 2 of the District 10 Championship brought a lot more wind than we saw yesterday. Given that and the fact that the tide would be going out when we were coming in, the race committee decided to sail us in the harbor.
I got a great start in the first race and was hanging with the leaders until I botched a tack and dumped the boat. I was able to right myself and stay with the lead pack on the downwind.
On the next beat upwind a large yacht (130ft?) was transiting the channel and was about to go right through the middle of the course. I was a little behind the fleet and rather than being cut off, I figured it would be best to duck behind the yacht and sail upwind on the other side of the channel and by the time I got to the mark, the yacht would be well past the course.
I aimed to pass about 20ft behind the boat while knowing it was still going forward and would probably be even farther away by the time I got to it. I also was anticipating a bit of a wind shadow. What I didn’t anticipate were the other sailors in the fleet yelling to this boat that they had right of way (they didn’t) and cutting in front of it.
Just as I got behind the yacht in the wind shadow the captain stopped the yacht and put it into full reverse. In no wind I had no way to get out from behind the yacht as it got closer. The wind behind the yacht ended up sucking me towards it and caused me to capsize to windward with the mast on the swim platform. Thankfully I wasn’t further away or the mast would have hit the water and the yacht would have driven backwards over it. My sailboat eventually turtled and I swam it around to the side of the yacht. A couple parents, coaches and safety boats were there 20 seconds later and helped me right the boat and get away from the yacht.
After that scary experience I was pretty exhausted. In the second race I was making all kinds of dumb mistakes from being tired and ended up death rolling the boat a few times downwind. At that point I knew no more good was going to come out of this day and felt it was best to just hang it up before I get even more tired and frustrated, or worse, do damage to a borrowed boat.
An hour later I was packed and ready to go. I stopped on the shoreline near the racecourse and was able to get a few good photos of a radial start and a standard rig mark rounding.
To avoid some of the 95 traffic I decided to give the Cape May to Lewes Delaware ferry a try. The rest of the ride home was thankfully less eventful than my day of sailing.
All in all it was a fun trip. I had good results on day 1 and it was great meeting all the sailors from D10. CYCCM did a great job with the regatta and I want to thank Mark for the loaner boat and Dave for the place to stay.
Photos from the weekend can be seen here.
Today was the first day of the District 10 Championship at Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May. The day started with a nice sail out to course out the channel and in the ocean. At that point the wind died and the confused seas were rather uncomfortable to try and sit in.
An hour later the wind picked up and the race was started. I had a great start in the middle of the line on Port! Found a great hole in the mid-line sag and jumped out to a 4 boat lead. I was first boat around the windward mark with one boat close behind. He got me on the downwind and I followed him to a 2nd place finish.
The wind picked up a little in the 2nd race, but I still wasn’t overpowered and managed a 5th. The wind picked up for the final two races and I finished 11th and 12th in the 26 boat fleet. What started out as a pretty miserable day sitting on the water really turned into a great day of racing.
I arrived in Cape May New Jersey for the Laser District 10 Championship just in time to snap a few photos of the sunset over the Cape May Harbor. Looking forward to two days of racing out on the ocean from Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May.
