Mild conditions and light winds seem to be what the winter series is serving up, and yesterday's race was a good example. Winter Vashon was light and cold. Despite the early departure from Shilshole and the long run down, the worst we saw on the race course were a few drops of heavy fog in the dark. Otherwise, conditions were pretty similar, but with a bit more wind.
We chose the Duwamish Head race to test the idea the 6 people could do any maneuver on a race course, and the good news is we never felt like we needed another set of hands. We had pretty experienced crew aboard though, and the wind was probably never more than 8 knots. Not exactly Pac Cup conditions, we hope, but we got a lot of gybes in and felt that this crew could handle more if conditions had allowed..
The start was very congested as the wind shut off, so that they postponed as we were coming up to the line. Probably best as there were maybe 30 boats parked at the line, and we were looking to be a little late. Almost an hour later we re-started, and with some time to think about it, we led the fleet around the pin and gybed out immediately for wind, just getting our bow out ahead of Wildflower, with Absolutely breathing down our necks.
With clear air, we were able to extend our lead on the fleet, and hang in front of Absolutely. At Three Tree Point we separated, with us holding the shore breeze on the beach, while they went offshore. Turns out the offshore line paid big dividends, and by the time we could get back out there they had separated from us and were on their way to a 1st place finish. We tried to get some of it back after rounding Alki, but with their new A-sail they were fast and there wasn't much we could do against the very well sailed old One tonner. So we likely settled for second again.
With the shortened course and the early afternoon finish in Elliott Bay it made for easy duty. Thanks to Eli, Matt, Al, Nick, and Alex for joining us. Good fun, easy sailing with you guys. Almost too easy...no drama, no issues, the boat is in good shape. Now, if we can just dial up a little more wind for Toliva Shoals...
