SYSCO Spring Series, Thursdays, May 5, 2016

This was fun. The wind was up and the course board was confusing. The RC decided to save time and effort and combine pennants with the same course on the same line. I took it to mean that there would be only four starts, but as later pointed out to me there were six starts as usual. There were no plus signs between any of the pennant numbers. DUH. That explains the interesting squiggle at the beginning of the race. We started twice. Actually we were going to start three times, but noticed that only the rangers were starting on the third start so we bowed out. We did start in the fourth start, but noticed that our fleet flag stayed up after we started. Strange. Then it occurred to us that we would have to start again. Thus the squiggle.

At this time I would like to thank my crew. We managed to snag Gary K. to help Bill S. Gary owns Blue Streak, the other SJ28 that should have been racing, but he has been having more fun crewing on other people's boats.

We had a decent start, right behind La Dolce Vita (LDV). It took us some time to figure out where we were after our first start and managed to get started alright. We managed to round the windward mark second and get our whisker pole out to port to make the downwind run. The wind was about 8 to 10 knots with gusts to 15. We meandered over to the 20 foot depth and headed for 14. The gusts would get us going about 7+ knots. The water off the bow and stern was the loaded I have heard on Aventura. Then about 3/4 down the run, a gust exploded the whisker pole. It broke in half. Half going in the water and the half attached to the mast stayed with the mast. We were contemplating taking the pole down because of the usual problem of the wind going to a beam reach from the broad reach at times. This is caused by the boat getting ahead of the wind or the wind dying while the boat continues with its speed. We were gaining on LDV until the pole exploded. So we finished second, again. This puts us in third place, but tied in points with River Weasel and LDV. They each have a first.

I bought a 20' length of 2" diameter .065 walled aluminum tube to replace the whisker pole. I am going to cut it at 15' and use the end I have and make another end for the sail on my 3D printer. It is a 7 hour build. I am waiting for a day where I will be home for the build. I am just too busy being retired. Probably build it Saturday, during the rain.

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