Harvest Regatta... What a hoot!

We don't get wind like this on Fern Ridge very often. In fact, several people (myself included) have never seen wind like this before on our lake. For me, that covers ten years.

Saturday Conditions: Sunny, North Wind, Averaging just above 20 mph, Max 28 mph, Max Gust 37 mph.

No, that's not a description of the conditions at Cascade Locks or SOCKS. It's our humble little ACE Project. This was jib weather... and we were at home. The regatta started off with 5 fleets including Lidos, Portsmouth, Santana 20s, PHRF and multi hulls. As boats were doing their pre-race preparations, several capsized and concluded the conditions were beyond their comfort zone. Others would come to that conclusion as the day wore on and the wind continued to build.

The first course was a Windward-Leeward, twice around. We were the third start after the Lidos and Portsmouth. One Lido tentatively crossed the start line. Five minutes later a Fireball, some Thistles and a couple Lightnings started. There were 13 Santana 20s in our start. Almost immediately two boats locked horns... or rigging actually. One mast inside the space between another boat's mast and forestay. A bent spreader forced one boat to retire for the day. The other boat was hanging by little more than a thread or two but didn't know it. They finished the days racing and then noticed their jib wouldn't come down because of an interesting "starburst" pattern made by many broken strands in their forestay! Wow...

The lone Lido gingerly sailed around the course, finished the first race and called it a day.... Actually, that was the regatta. With the same wind forecast for day 2, none of the 7 or 8 Lidos raced on Sunday.

After the end of our second race (another W-L x2), we looked around and it seemed as though about half the boats had retired. The final race of the day was also a W-L but just one lap. At the end of the day, we found ourselves solidly in second place. The top three boats in out fleet finished first, second and third in all three races.

It was a very good day for us. We had reasonably good starts and our speed was very competitive. It seemed the major differentiator was the downwind legs. The boats flying a kite (and carrying it reasonably well) made large gains on those trying to run with their jibs. Maintaining control and getting through jibes and douses cleanly payed dividends among the boats with spinnakers up. It sounds obvious but this was heavy air. Our boat handling and sail trim was much better than the last time we saw similar conditions. We routinely saw double digits on the speedo and registered a max of 12.7 mph. Things got a little squirrelly from time to time but we managed to keep our weight aft and the rudder in the water.

And yet the boat that always seemed to be in front of us appeared to be under control without shifting all their weight to the rear of the cockpit. One thing they had going for them was familiarity with the conditions. They were from San Fransisco and I'm sure it seemed like another day on the ocean without the swells. They also benefited from the services of a bone fide AC trimmer in Sylvain Barrielle. He stood in the middle of that boat with the guy in one hand the and spin sheet in the other and just made that boat look stable and fast.

Second place was a good result for day 1. We had UK Halsey sailmakers ahead of us and North behind us in third. Not bad considering our day jobs don't have anything to do with sailing.