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Fleet #1 had originally planned our Saturday race to be on Lake Union.  Upon realizing that this was opening day of boating season we quickly decided to hold the race anywhere but Lake Union.  In our attempt to avoid the crowds we decided to swap out the venue to Don Armeni park in West Seattle and hold races on Elliot bay.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find every space in the launch ramp (and half the street) full of trailers from the hundreds of boats which were swarming Elliot bay like roaches when you flick on the light.  What was the cause of this flurry of activity you ask?  Opening day… of the Seattle shrimp season.  Seriously who in their right mind would eat something which lives on the bottom of Elliot bay?  It is literally hundreds of feet from the mouth of the Duamish river (one of the nations worst super fund sites).  “Another shrimp cocktail sir?”  “No, no, I am just going to mainline this lovely blend of arsenic and heavy metals!”  Why bother wasting time catching the shrimp?  It would be far more efficient to just wander around licking the streets of Seattle.  But I digress…

After we managed to get everyone a parking space we ended up with 11 boats on the water (the most I am told since the first Norm Blanchard regatta in 2004).  There were 6 Working Sails boats (Jessie, BoB, Scout, Limpet, Habagat, & Compass Rose), and 5 Spinnaker boats (Wooglin, Charmed Juan, PGS Juan, No Excuse, & Wild Juan).  It was cold with light drizzle for most of the day, but no one seemed to mind because for the first time this spring we finally had enough wind to get of a full 4 races. There was a light breeze out of the North for the first couple races which built into a nice 10kts for the final two races.

The first race was a challenge to dodge the shrimping boats & pot buoys while simultaneously keeping your boat moving through the crazed chop stirred up by every yahoo and his brother in Seattle with a shellfish license.  The rain kept the telltales plastered to sails so all the captains developed kinked necks from craning to see the mast head fly.  Scout and Charmed Juan won the start, and several boats at the back including Wooglin flopped on to port to get into clean air.  This turned out to be a favored tack and The boats at the back made up a lot ground on the first windward leg.  Many boats were caught off guard by the strength of the current out at the Duamish Head mark (which we use as our windard rounding mark) and had to put in an extra tack to get around.  Downwind the fleet really spread out as the spinnakers came out on the lead boats.  I must give Stephen Jensen on Charmed Juan some good credit for sailing his spinnaker single handed.  It was a neck and neck duel most of the race between Wooglin and Charmed Juan. Ultimately Wooglin came out ahead, having sailed past almost every boat in the fleet.  Charmed Juan was second and Scout took third.

The start of the second race saw even lighter & more shifting winds than the first race.  I had Limpet too far from the start line, and found myself blanketed by a wall of sails in light air.  I attempted to start on a port tack only to have the wind shift around to the east enough to make it impossible to lay the line on port.  I tacked back to starboard at the starboard pin only to find most of the fleet sailing back towards me on port in order to get away from shore.  Since I was the only boat on Starboard I decided to use it for what it was worth and came barreling through the boats yelling “Starboard.”  Unfortunately PGS Juan didn’t have enough steerage to get out of my way and despite my best efforts to avoid Gene, we managed to have a nice collision.  The current was running even more out by the windward mark, and boats who seemed to be seriously over the line ended up just barely clearing the mark.  Charmed Juan was the first around the mark and bore off on a beam reach back towards the center of the bay.  Wooglin put up a Spinnaker, but as the wind shifted around to the North East he was hurt by the extreme angles, and Charmed Juan kept the lead despite not putting up the chute.  The top three for the race were Charmed Juan, Wooglin, and BoB. 

The wind and chop filled in from the North nicely for the third race, and much of the fleet quickly struck out into the middle of the bay which was much less crowded than before.  I was initially very exicted to get a little more breeze as this is traditionally when Limpet performs a bit better.  Unfortunately that was not the case on Saturday and the critical third race was the beginning of the end for me.  Everyone was pointing higher and sailing away from me.  Nothing I did seemed to make any difference, and I became increasingly frustrated with my inability to get things moving.  This was not the case for Wooglin, Charmed Juan, and Jessie who finished 1, 2, 3 in the race. 

The Final race of the day was as steady a breeze as we have had all spring, and for once I actually had Limpet on the line with clear air, and speed at the horn.  Unfortunately my woes to windward continued with several boats including Charmed Juan, Jesse, and Woogling rolling over me quickly after the start.  I somehow managed to make the windward mark, only to look back at a wall of sails Scout, BoB, and Habagat eating my wind as we reached out into the bay.  They quickly ate up the boat lengths between us, until I jibed into clean air on the port tack and managed to get some separation just before the 2 boat circle.  As I jibed back around to make a nice tight rounding (per my rights) The dead air from 3 blocking sails quickly decelerated Limpet and there were suddenly 2 boats bearing down on my port beam with nowhere to go.  Scout was the inside boat and had rights to room from BoB the middle boat, but not from me (the boat mid way through rounding, but going slow).  BoB crashed into Scout to the inside, and as I bore away in an attempt to avoid collision, BoB ricocheted into Limpets stern as well.  The real winner in al all of this was Habagat who waited on the outside and managed to round up in front of 3 boats at the mark.  BoB did his penalty turn, and still managed to beat me, as I never did figure out how to get things going to windward.  The first 3 boats across the line were exactly the same as Race #3: Wooglin, Charmed Juan, and Jesse.

Now I need to get out and practice for NOODs in 2 weeks where I will be flying a Spinnaker for the first time.

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