Aug 25 2007
Race #4: Limpet’s Coming Out Party
While there were only a couple of times where I crossed the line absolutely last, Limpet had never been even remotely close to crossing the line first. That is until today! The wind, water, and fates aligned for Limpet to claim her first victory, then her second, then her third. Basically my friend David Coons and I were a couple poor starts away from putting on a complete clinic. It didn’t hurt that the two fastest boats in the fleet were not in attendance, but I won’t let little things like facts get in the way of my delusions of grandeur.
There was a couple of other factors which might account for Limpets sudden improvements. The first is of course replacing my keel gasket. The second was borrowing a cable tension gage from Jack and tensioning my shrouds significantly. I was also very happy that the wind was up enough to eliminate the benefits of a traveler, as if I had had one it would have been placed to leeward where my old school sheeting was naturally. I could have used an adjustable backstay to help keep the boat level in the puffs, but I did have 500+ lbs of movable ballast in the form of Me and Dave. This was a definite advantage over those sailing by themselves.
As we headed out I noticed that the breeze was stiffer away from shore and that it swung to favor the left side of the course. However, the windward mark was set fairly close to shore where the wind swung S.W. to favor the right side of the course. I decided to start the first race on a starboard tack at the port end of the line, head out to the stronger breeze, tack onto port 1/3 the way up the windward leg sail to the far right side of the course, tack onto starboard again with 1/3 or less of the leg left to go. I thought this would give me the best combo of stronger wind, and favorable wind shift in near the windward mark where I had no choice but to go close to shore.
At the start I was well lined up and won my end of the start. It seemed like most other boats were fighting for the starboard end of the line, and most headed in to the right side of the course. I was ahead of the couple boats on my end and we sailed away from the fleet. It was awesome! I followed my plan and rounded the windward mark in the lead with no one near. Downwind the breeze got downright stiff, and we extended our lead. Some boats made ground beating back to the finish, but it was not enough to prevent Limpet from scoring her first, first place finish.
Dave and I cracked victory beers while we watched the rest of the fleet finish the race.
We decided we would sail the same exact strategy and hope for the same results in the second race. We didn’t get the start we wanted and when it came time for our first tack onto port, we had to duck under Scout and Habagat. Luckily they didn’t tack onto us, and we had clean air to execute our strategy a second time. Again we rounded the windward mark in the lead. We cracked our second beers for the down wind leg, something from Dogfish Head Brewery with 11% alcohol content, and we were starting to feel pretty good. And we seemed to be sailing away from the fleet again. I think Limpet is a fast boat when running. Again we managed to fight off some late charges to cross the line first.
The third start we were caught unawares while we were eating some amazing salmon sandwiches that Dave had brought. In fact I think we were the next to last boat across the line. PSG Juan nailed the start and was not to be caught. We managed to pass a couple boats and finish a respectable 4th.
The fourth race we got caught up in a mess and Great Excuse pined us into irons for a moment as Two For Juan sailed past. I followed hot on the heals of Great Excuse who lead at the windward and leeward mark. However, the wind was howling on the beat back to the finish and using our ballast to good advantage we sailed closer to the wind and faster than Great Excuse could go while being single handed. We edged out Great Excuse for our third 1st place finish.
The final race was a very, very entertaining affair with the whole fleet stacked up on top of each other. The wind shifted around so that it was almost impossible to cross the line on a Starboard tack. The start was very hard fought and Rascal was over the line early. Stephen thought Limpet might be over early as well, but Dave and I had been watching the pins and by our timer we were several second from over. In addition I believe that Two For Juan crossed at the same time as us (and with speed). We were left trapped on a port tack in the middle of a group sending us bad air. We tacked and headed out into the lake, and lost some ground. Still at the windward mark we were right on Two for Juan’s tail. Unfortunately we were not overlapped at the two boat circle and didn’t call for room, so Stephen slammed us out at the mark. We immediately set up to blanket them, and passed to windward. Of course the next three boats around the mark did the same thing to us. Quickly Two For Juan, Limpet, Great Excuse, Scout, and PSG Juan were racing down wind 5 abreast and trading places back and forth. 
Two For Juan initiated a course change with the call of “Coming UP” and 3 more calls echoed as the whole line pointed higher and higher. At one point I think I heard a call of “Permission to Board!” That is how tight it was. We were 5 wide at the leeward mark with everyone calling “Room” “Room” “Room”… Two for Juan and PSG Juan came out in the lead and battled for first on the right, while I headed to the left side of the course. I think that PSJ Juan crossed the line first but that there was controversy as to if Two For Juan was pushed out of room to finish on a seaman like course. Limpet finished 3rd in that final race.
The whole day the luff of my jib was flapping like a flock of Canadian geese on the wing. I know that this slows the boat, and I think I will pick up some serious speed with my new sails. Eventually I can add a traveler, an adjustable backstay, a Cunningham, and I will be dangerous.
