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The final San Juan 21 Fleet 1 Race of the 2007 season was at Coulon Park in Renton WA, on a day which would have made penguins look for a nice dry place to get out of the rain.  A hard rain is a rare occurance in Seattle where we prefer our precipitation accumulations to be slowly drawn out over weeks if not months.  But for this race the skies opened up and dumped almost ½ inch of rain between 11AM and 2PM.  I was soaked by the time I got my mast up, and found myself thinking of Noah… “Hmm I wonder if the Arc had an adjustable backstay?”  Six boats were willing to brave the risk of drowning while still sitting in the cockpit: Habagat, Rascal, Compass Rose, Charmed Juan, PGS Juan (sporting a shiny new mast) and of course Limpet.  Chris Popich left Wooglin at home but crewed aboard Rascal.  On board Limpet I had my Father John along as brave and experienced crew. 

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What is wrong with this picture?  After Gene found himself dismasted last week I got to thinking about my standing rigging.  In particular my spreaders have always been extreemly wobbly whenever I lower the mast.  I decided it was time for a closer look. 

 After some quick measurements and mechnaical review, I realized that my spreaders are 4 inches too long, and that there was nothing holding them on but compression force.  Originally SJ21s came with 29 inch spreaders, but latter years the spreaders were cut down to 25 inches (which is the minimum allowed by class rules).  This reduction helps pointing ability if you are sailing with the 135% Genoa.  I don’t sail with a Genoa but some day I may try so I decided if I was going to replace the bolt which was no longer holding the spreaders on I might as well cut them down to the minimum lenght.

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This weekends San Juan 21 Race in Elliot Bay ended up being more of an obstacle course than a sailboat race, and not all the boats came out unscathed.  The course featured a starting line with a heavily favored starboard pin just off the rocks, a weather mark protected by a giant bull Sea Lion, a dead zone ¾ of the way down the down wind run, and an imposing leeward mark surrounded by 3 foot seas and a crazy wind shift.  The only thing missing to make the vision of a visit to Camp Pendelton complete was Clint Eastwood firing an AK47 over our heads.  If you think I am succumbing to my tendencies for over-embellishment, just look at the photos of PGS Juan demasted while attempting to round the leeward mark on the final race of the day.  I am not kidding. . . it was so treacherous that Scout’s crew didn’t even take our their banjos. 

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I am not sure about the rest of fleet 1 but I am excited about our next to last race of the season which is taking place tomorrow.  I thought I would post some valuable links for the race:

Alki Point Wind Forecast

Seattle Tide Charts

I also want to focus on my starts tomorrow.  To that end I would like to know if there are any thoughts from fleet 1 and beyond on the start strategies & skills which have (or have not) worked for you?

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