It's Good To Be Back

Or is it... After spending time back east, I was eager to get back on the water and racing again. It had been several weeks. The guys did okay without me but the familiarity of sailing together (Don and Gordon for over 30 years and the three of us of nine) is a big comfort and advantage.
So it felt good to be out on the water, in a good stiff breeze and gearing up for a race last Thursday evening. We got off the line fairly well as did several others. We had to hold our position for a while until the others tacked away (no wanting to duck three or four boats). We had Faux Pas below us and couldn't quite get the clean air we wanted but had no place to go.
Finally after the boats above us tacked away, we were free to tack over on port. We continued for a while until our lift decreased and we tacked back to starboard.... "starboard... STARBOARD!"... BANG. Similar to this.
After getting over the initial shock and briefly making sure Faux Pas was okay, I checked out the damage. We had a pretty good "dent" along the port rub rail. Fortunately, it was behind the shrouds and forward of the spin sheet block. I looked from below and it looked like the hull was okay. We got our heads back in the race and tacked for the first mark.
Incredibly, we were the first around and start the reach leg with a boat length lead. At this point, I attempted a quick repair. "It's amazing what you can do with duct tape." It was primarily to keep water on the outside of the hull. It seems they float better this way. It also seemed quite undesirable to sit on the broken edges of fiberglass.
The rest of the race was uneventful for us. We extended our lead on subsequent legs and roundings and finished comfortably in first.
So what do we take away from this besides a bruised and battered boat? Well for one thing, yelling on a windy day does little good. I'm not sure how to do a better job of getting another boat's attention. Second, it's vital for crew to look below for boats on starboard. When you have inexperienced crew, the skipper must do it and remind his or her crew. Third, in high wind, falling off to duck a transom is a bad emergency maneuver. We suspect this is what happened. As you fall off, you gain speed and the collision just happens sooner. It's better to crash tack.
Whew! It's good to be back...

Port rail and deck damage


Mid race duct tape repair


Port rail and hull damage

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