CBreitenstein photo

Fall Series - Race Day 3

Four stubborn boats and their stalwart crews patiently waited out the calm and occasional "teaser" winds to finally get sailing racing in.

Clear blue skies and glassy waters greeted Tim as he rounded the corner to the Marina at about 10 am.  Jeff was soon in the parking lot, his boat moored in the Marina after a night of steelhead fishing on the Confluence.  Determined to get a race in, Tim dunked Coir Jaot and headed to Wes' to picked up the marks.  The course was set by 11:30 and the waiting game was on.  So we waited, and waited, and waited.  Jeff couldn't handle the idleness, so jumped aboard Vind Kfir, and motored up river to test his fishing luck.  He figured he could drift back towards the race course while hoping for wind.

About 1:30 the Littles ventured forth from the Marina on Islander Spirit with Robbie and Conrad close behind on Pneuma.  We all gathered at the start line and waited.  And waited.  We talked about mainsheets and blown travelers, we talked spinnaker poles, we talked about whisker poles, we talked about pirates and life jackets.  We unfurled pirate flags and shouted "argh" and "scurry dog".  We marveled at the shear size of the hardware aboard the Littles’ boat and the deft single handing ability of Tim aboard his SJ21. 

Randy Blair made an “on the water” parts delivery.

Finally, at the tick of 3:00 pm, the wind started to fill.  Wasting no time, we began a start sequence, which unfortunately caught the Littles heading the wrong direction with sails set for downwind sailing.  Five minutes ticked off quickly and we started our second race of the Fall Series on a nice windward leg downriver.  The Littles struggled to get going, but were soon tacking upriver, chasing the pack.  The race lasted just over an hour.  Line honors went to Tim Lynch, followed by Robbie, Jeff and the Littles, only 3 minutes behind (that spinnaker is working guys!).  Jeff beat Robbie on handicap.

Deciding we had waited too long to quit now, the unanimous decision was to keep sailing, forgo Fazzari's and do another once around race in the setting sun.  This time the Littles were right in the thick of things at the start (these guys keep getting better).  Robbie tried to squeeze in at the pin and fouled Jeff when he failed to come up and Jeff had to alter course.  He sailed over the top of Jeff, but Jeff hailed his protect and Robbie did his turn after the first tack.  Exonerated, Robbie sailed smooth and fast and caught Jeff on the downwind.  The Littles rounded the mark and choose to go wing-on -wing until noticing the gap widening between them and Jeff.  So, up went the spinnaker again.  Unfortunately the wind was fading and the gap closed very little.

However, all the boats finished in under an hour, which means our performance improved (the wind sure didn't).   The results were the same.  Coir Jaot, Vind Kfir, Pneuma, Islander Spirit.

It was getting dark by the time we got the boats headed for shore and really dark by the time we got on the trailers, but that didn't stop the post race conversations in the parking lot.  It was a good, long day. 

-  Tim Lynch, LCSA Race Chair '08  EMail