Our GPS Track...This is how Winning is DONE!

So after a hiatus from sailing, we went back out on the water.  It had been a while since we last raced Speedy.  We had some new crew on the boat, and some seasoned.  Bryan is back from Kuwait and he stepped on to race.  This was Lisa’s first time on Speedy, so she was learning how everything worked.

So Saturday night, we (JoJo, Bryan, and I) were out a bit late at the Dubliner.  We did win some cool ass hats though from the Jameson Girls.  WoooHooooo…..I love me some free Shwag!  We did a whole “Team Hat” thing…the girls wore the newly acquired Jameson hats, while Bryan and I took on the military hats he brought back from Kuwait.  We looked good.  But how were we going to sail?

We loaded up Speedy and headed north to play with the Bayview kids.  Did I mention that there was some talk between my crew and Swale’s?  Well…there was a wager made, and there was a round of beers at stake.

The race started and Swale had about a 10 minute head start…we were going to have to work hard to get that boat back in our sights.  The hangover was not helping.  The wind was neither.  We broke off the fleet and headed to the west side of the lake looking to catch a wind-line. We had to get the binoculars out to see Swale…that’s how far ahead of us they were.   There was some real light southern wind.  At times, we were having a dance Party on the deck.  I might have even Moooooned Swale….I can’t say for sure!

They were ahead.  We were trying hard to catch them and the wind-line we thought we saw on the west shore.  Luckily for us, we got a hold of the wind line and headed towards the mark.  And we were going FAST!  By the time we got to the mark, we could see the whole fleet in out proverbial rear view mirror.  we had given every boat but one time….and now we were up front.  Hell YA!  We still have it.  We can rock out a boat race even hung over.

We round the mark.  We hoist the spinnaker.  We now have a spinnaker in the water.  All of a sudden the wind has DIED!  The fleet is slowly making up ground.  We can almost make out faces on Swale.  We take down the chute…we put up the Ginny.  What do you know, we are moving again.  That was a 180 degree wind shift right at the mark.  WOW.  So we are headed toward the finish when the wind shifts again.  It forces us to change sails once again,  Spinnaker is back up and now we are on a tight reach…but we are hauling ass.

We finish.  In First.  Time to collect our winnings, but first we take the boat back to RCYC and put her up.  Then we head to Flying Saucer.  I love nothing more than a nice cold FREE Guinness…Good Try Swale, Better Luck Next Time.

We had our last race of DRW last night. The same triangle course that we’ve had in the past nights.  EXCEPT it was a windward start…actually it was a reach.  We were right on the start.  Had to change the side that we were going to launch the chute and that is when it went a little afoul.  I am not ratting anyone out, but the Spinnaker came out of the cabin sideways.  Someone had the halyard on the wrong end of the Spinnaker…I hope no one got a picture of that.  I know many of the boats saw it, as they reminded me of it during the after party.

Jamie was on the boat again, but this time he had a J-O-B…he was going to fly the spin tonight.  Spencer had an oppertunity to go do some offshore sailing and he took it.  Jamie has been on the Olson exactly 2 times, and I think he has only been on a sail boat only a handfull of times.  Now he was in charge of flying the spin during more than 2/3 of the race.  The man handled the pressure like a champ.

Needless to say, he didn’t understand what had happened when we launched the chute and it came out sideways.  We did manage to get it back in the boat and fix the foul up.  we relaunched and Jamie went to work.  We were flying the VMG spinnaker and it was exactly what we needed.  we reached the first mark, Gybed around the mark started heading to the second mark.

Once Jamie and I got on the same channel, we started to fly down the leg.  We caught up to some of the boats that we were after and actually managed to pass a couple of the boats, cuz as usual, we were the last boat on the course.

We are coming close to the second mark and we take down the spinnaker…F’ing Virginia brought that thing down like a CHAMP…we had the 155  up and started for the mark…we took it a bit wide but that helped us have good speed after the mark.

Peter had the headsail dialed in.  I mean that thing was perfect and you could feel the boat just picking up speed and heading right to the mark…SWALE and HotsyTotsy were in front and we were going after them.  Swale tacked across us and showed that he was 5 or 6 boat length in front of us.  Hotsy sped toward the shoreline for speed, but we kept on the line toward the mark.  Next thing I know Swale has tacked back, and is now only a couple of boat lengths in front of us, but they are on top of us.

Hotsy tacks right towards us, but we had them by an inch or two so they had to tack below us.  We took over them, but still had Swale to contend with.  I was not going to lose my concentration cost us this time.  My eyed stayed on the telltales and the mark.  WE WERE RIGHT ON THE LINE!  Swale fell back and now we were safe from them…next target was just to makeup as much places as we could.

We tacked around the mark and put the chute back up…unfortunately it did nothing for us…now August Blaze was trying to come around us…I was not going to let that happen…yeah…mistake…trying to keep them from passing us cost us boat speed…now Hotsy was back on our heels…CRAP!!!  The wind was kinda weird…so we brought down the Spinnaker and hoisted the Genny…

All of a sudden, the boat picked up and started to GO!  We ended up passing a couple of other boats and finishing.

If Thursday was in the top 5 days on the boat, today definitely made the same list.  It just felt so cool to come back from behind and make up for some early mistakes.

WHAT A GREAT WEEK OF RACING…

A very sincere thanks to everyone that made it out to crew on Speedster…a Very Special thanks to Peter and Virginia, and Dwight.  They came out every night and worked their butts off…I owe you all BIG!!!

Also, Skiles and Woody, thank you both for coming in and helping me with tuning the boat and my driving skills. The things you thought me will not be forgotten.

Spencer and Jamie, you guys ROCK…thank you so much for flying the Chute…I cant wait to have you both on the again.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU…

Bryan Calk was in from Kuwait on leave.  He wanted to get out on the water…there was a race on the lake, so we went to BayView to race the Wed Night Series…Bryan, Dwight, and I sailed her to the north side of the lake and picked up Peter at the dock.  We were a bit light on crew, but we handled it.

Start was right on, we tacked out of the nasty air and headed for the middle of the lake…We decided to tack back and that is when things did not go well…A little overwrap and we practically pulled the Jib Sheet Cleat off the deck….DOH!!!  We couldn’t trim, we couldn’t release, we spent a good 3 minutes trying to get the sheet out of the cleat.  Thank our lucky stars we were going fast and were on starboard tack.

We cleared the foul and headed toward the Mark.  At the mark, imagine what my face looked like when the SWALE (the boat I normally crew on) is at the mark before us.  OverKill (the other Olson30), S-Cape, Geranimo, and Hotsy are right there too…I guess we had not lost as much time as I thought.

Rounded the mark and we took off…got behind S-Cape and Stayed there for the rest of the race.  We finished as the trhird boat, but ended up 6th after the corrections.  BAH!  Much props to SWALE…nice third kids.

Had a BBQ at the dock with the rest of the sailors, and decided to head back to RCYC…as soon as people heard we were having a late night cruise, there was a frenzy for getting coolers on the boat.  We left RCYC with three, and got back with seven I think.  There were also 7 coolers…

By the way, if you ever have a starboard bow light out….cut a 7up or sprite plastic bottle bottom off and duct tape it to a flashlight.

Dwight took the night pics…

Hotsy Totsy and Speedster, pic from Orion.

Last weekend we participated in the first Founders Regatta at RCYC celebrating the club’s 40th anniversary.  I was very pleased to see the number of boats involved from all across the lake.  We had racers competing from Chandler’s Landing  Yacht Club as well as BayView Yacht Club.

Friday started with a thorough cleaning of the boat and some small minor repairs.  The cleaning lasted right up to the start of the first race.  (MENTAL NOTE: thorough cleanings should be done AFTER the regatta.)  Saturday I had the pleasure of having Jonesy and the Pussycats (Mandy and Sandra), along with Brad (from Austin Yacht Club) as crew.

Although most of the crew had hardly ever raced on Speedster, I think we did good.  My PINCHING didn’t exactly help our cause.  We got a second, and a fourth for the two races.  Storm came in, we fled to the club.

Sunday, we were lucky to have Peter and Virginia come in and help out on the boat. Dwight also joined the crew to help out.  Thank god he did.  Peter almost had a couple of heart attacks trying to bring in that big old 155 Genoa. I bumped into Barking Fish/king Fish before the start of a race.  Learned that both boats need not close one gap.

Speaking of learning…Brad’s advise and teaching was invaluable.  I learned more about racing in the two days Brad was on the boat than I had ever known.   Wind was good, weather was good, and I think we made a vast improvement as the day went on. Even though my pinching problem was a bit more under control, I started to over rotate during tacks.  I don’t think Brad liked that, and more than once I was reminded of that.

Hotsy Totsy gave us hell.  It was back and forth with those guys.  Even though we give them a few seconds, they were all over us.  Around every mark, at every start, every finish, we were only seconds apart.  That was the highlight of this weekend.

We actually got three races in on Sunday and by the last race we were a well oiled machine, with two fourths and a second, we finished the regatta in 3rd (out of 4)…but I was OK with that, even though the biggest reason was my driving.  I need a whole lot of practice.

Speaking of  practice, I am trying to get together a crew to do the Saturday Damn Series.  It starts around 12 and we cruise up and down the lake in a very leisurely pace.  If anyone is interested, please let me know.

Ok, so Virginia took a ton of pictures…Click Here