Day 2 of Lagoon, and things start to click…

So after my first day of racing, I was determined not to let things get messed up on day 2. Around the clubhouse in the morning there were murmers of concern with the weather patterns. Winds were supposed to bein the high 20’s gusting to th e30’s. Wind was forecast, It was a damp cold outside that numbed your fingers fast. Some people abandoned the race, preferring the safety of a car ride home, and some went out and re-evaluated their boats to make sure they were up for the task.

I decided to risk the race, but not my kid. If stupid is going to hurt someone it should be me. Chuck rode home with SWMBO and buddy, and I settled in to singlehand in the storm that was brewing. On the dock I set a reef in the main and hanked on our 110% - the same sail as the day before. Then was offered crew, an experienced sailor without a boat to ride on. It sounded great. We got everything set, started the outboard, and headed to Lake Simcoe.

The wind was howling and whitecaps were here and there as we left the breakwall to face Lake Simcoe. Once the sails were set, I left the outboard down to give us a little drag and be sure we weren’t being too far overpowered. Iris bit into the wind, and we were sailing along very nicely. Soon we were in the start sequence, and keeping an eye on our competition. The clock ticked away, and the flying sail fleet took off – all piss and vinegar as they crashed through the waves, slicing the foam and tossing it aside. It was our turn.

I got Iris into a nice spot on the line, circles a few times and kept an eye on the clock. With 30 seconds to go we were approaching the line nicely. 10, 9, 8, 7 CRAP! The wrong flag was up – we were exactly on time to cross the line by my stopwatch, but a minute early by the committee boat. Somehow we had the wrong horn for the pre-start signal. I tacked away, lost too much momentum, and ended up in irons, once again agonizing as the entire fleet sailed past us.

Eventually I got Iris aimed back at the course, and as with the day before we worked to catch up with the fleet.

The course today was “2 triangles and a sausage”. This means that there would be 3 windward legs, 4 reaching legs, and 1 running leg. The 110% sail had performed really well in the windward leg the day before, and I had tweaked a few things for better reaching performance. The running leg was a crapshoot, but I figured that if I crossed my fingers just right it might work out. We put on our game faces and set to work.

My crew was amazing. He timed the crossing of the jib so that it never got caught in the forestay – not even once. And he wasn’t afraid to go forward to tweak things when needed. We outpointed most of the fleet, had very few early tacks, and apart from a couple of my strategies that could have been better, the race went really well.

We did direct battle throughout the race with Icarus, eventually finishing ahead of her. With Second wind we weren’t quite as lucky – we swapped tacks a couple times, and had a good lead on her to the finish, but I tacked early on our final approach giving her the advantage, and letting her slip by in the last minute of the race. Tobasco was a similar story. We had one crossing with her only feet off our bow, and then matched pace. For most of the race she was within range for us, then on the final reach and run we left her far behind. Somehow though, she outpointed us and got to the line ahead of us by about 3 minutes.

In the end we beat all of these guys on our handicap, and came in first in our division though – a far cry better than any of our previous Lagoon City showings. Things are feeling pretty darned good right now!

LSIS Race 2 Stats:
Distance Covered: XX.X Statute Miles (Slip to Slip) - Tracklog incomplete
Time on course: 2:24:40
Corrected time: 2:07:10
Time out of 1st Place (Corrected Time): 0:00:00
Iris was on course 0% longer than the first place boat.