I was so excited!  So we had a full boat.  Spencer came on board for the first time, the man knows way more about racing a boat then he let on when we were emailing back and forth.  At first we tried to put him up on foredeck, have Dwight fly the chute.  Foredeck on the Olson is a bit harder than it sounds…it did not go well.

Then Justin said that he knew how to fly the chute, so that solved all of our issues.  He would fly it, Dwight would handle the foredeck, Peter was grinding on the headsail, Virginia would help everywhere she could, and Jamie would hang out and watch the chaos that would soon ensue.

We had a pretty good start, it was a downwind and I think we crossed within 10-20 seconds of our predetermined time.  First leg was no biggy, we were on the same gybe all the way to the mark.  We had an issue taking down the Chute, but that was my fault.  Things did not improve too much.

We had been debating what headsail to use, and to be safe rather than sorry, we went with the little guy.  That cost us.  Wind died, but most everyone had their number 1 up.  We also did not have the little guy on the right track.  Pointing was difficult, and we lost ground…lots of ground.  I tacked too early for the third mark and we ended up having to pinch to get around it.  Slow…lost ground

We hoisted the Spin and WOOOOOOOOO, we went on a tight reach.  We actually gained on some boats thanks to Spencer.

Finished 28th…not good.  Not good at all.

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