Great job crew!!!  We had a great race tonight - our first night where we seemed to find a good rythmn and things that seemed like abstract ideas started to become knowledge.

The evening was near perfect with sunny skies, a light to moderate breeze and temperatures slightly on the cool side of warm with the wind chill going up wind.  The overall fleet included about 25 boats, though our fleet was minimal with only 3 boats - us and two J105's.  The course was simple - start then sail north around a buoy halfway between Meadow Point and Richmond Beach then return to the finish.

We go a decent start though were a bit slow and late, as I was once again pretty conservative with tactics.  Sarah was on the helm driving the boat well, and the boys in the pit were making the sails work well.

The basic idea of the night was to sail toward the beach to avoid the massive incoming tide's current which meant tacking onto port soon after the start.  Before we could tack, Allegro Vivace tacked and crossed us by a boat length.  We waited to tack to clear their air, and then tacked.  When we came back together we were close.  Real close, so close I took over the helm for a moment to make our duck of AV much closer than Sarah would've be comfortable doing.  I'm guessing that you could've easily tossed them a beer underhanded from the distance we crossed.

By waiting initially to tack, I thought we'd made it past the shallows of Meadow Point.  Boy was I wrong... luckily I looked down in time to see 10' on the depth sounder, to which I immediately called for a tack, and Sarah complied by throwing the helm over just as she saw 8'.  It was messy, but her reaction was perfect and likely kept us from hitting bottom.  Whew!!!

Good news was that despite our botched tack, we still crossed ahead of Delirium, the other boat in our fleet.  What followed this cross were a few long tacks toward the windward mark where we held our ground with the 105's and caught up with a few boats that left 10-15 minutes ahead of us.

We had a great rounding of the windward mark, the spinnaker launched and flying within 30 seconds of rounding - without the spinnaker sock's 'training wheels'.   The spinnaker trim and our downwind speed was great.  We're getting the hang of this.  We caught a couple more boats, passed Delirium before we gybed and finished a few minutes behind AV.

After finishing we took the opportunity to practice a couple more gybes and our gybe take down of the spinnaker - both which went well.

The night was capped off with a nice sail upwind to return to the marina, and for those of us who started out at Elliott Bay a nice power back during the waning moments of sunlight.

 

What a great event... Elliott Bay Marina and various downtown and sailing related businesses put on an event in Elliott Bay which is the essential low key 'race', also known as more than one boat sailing the in same direction.

Steve, Lisa, Amber, Chet, Luzia and Quang joined Sarah and me on a great early summer evening.  After gathering early at the boat and enjoying a cool drink we prepped the boat and headed out to see a large fleet of racing and cruising boats everything from 50-60' racers to 20' daysailers.  After first thinking that we'd start with the racing fleet, I decided that the cruising fleet might be more our speed given that we were wanting to take it easy.

With tons of boats, Amber was doing a great job on the bow spotting boats and Sarah was doing great on the helm avoiding them while I coached everyone and tried to get the spinnaker ready for the upcoming downwind leg.  We started about 5 minutes after the race fleet, sailing toward the Seattle waterfront toward a turning mark hidden behind a grain freighter in the Northeast corner of Elliott Bay.  It was a bit breezy with nice puffs - Steve, Chet and Quang did a great job trimming to keep the boat moving fast and passing those who started ahead of us.

In no time at all we'd passed several boats, and were approaching the turn South around the freighter - I worked the foredeck with Amber to get the spinnaker ready to hoist.  Quang worked the pit controlling the topping lift and halyards.  Soon after turning off the reach East, we headed south and hoisted the spinnaker having a few challenges with the sock and foreguy (the line that holds the pole down).  We sorted these issues out and we really began moving passing a few more boats as we passed by the Waterfront Restaurant.

Soon enough we reached the leeward mark - the team did great with the takedown - pole down, chute snuffed and down, jib out, gybe and we rounded with a bunch of other boats making just enough room for a 40' modern cruiser to sneak inside at the mark.  Steven, Chet and Quang trimmed us up and we snuck in behind those ahead and outpointed them to the next mark keeping our air clean and passing a few more boats in the puffy breeze.  Steve got a lesson easing and trimming the main sheet and traveler through the puffs - while everyone else hiked hard.

The last mark rounding was interesting as a we rounded on starboard with two port tack boats coming back at us.  We threaded the needle and after a little hiccup got back up speed holding off those around us.

The race flew by... frankly I wish we'd been able to do two laps since it was a wonderful evening with great wind.  However, we had important stuff to get to - beer, hot dogs and a live band and party put on by the sponsors and organizers.  It was a totally great night!!  Can't wait for next week.

Sorry - I keep forgetting pictures.  Going to give someone the camera next time to make sure that we have good shots!  Also forgot to turn on the GPS so no track.

 

This is getting pretty cool... every race is a bit better.

Tonight we had a full crew aboard with Will, Amber, Steve, Lisa, Chet, Luzia and Lee joining Sarah and me for the race.  Will and Amber delivered the boat with us from the marina to Shilshole where we picked up everyone else.

After heading out on time, we had a little time to prep the boat and settle prior to the race.  We got a good start though we were about 20 seconds late making our prospects for catching those 105's right on the line a bit tough.  Will did a great job leading the cockpit crew while Lee lead the crew at the front of the boat.  Trim was great and we made up ground upwind.

The first rounding and set was a bit challenged and the spinnaker was raised late, but once it was drawing we speed toward the leeward mark right on the layline.  No gybes needed, just hauled butt did a great job with an early conservative take down and tight rounding and proceeded to kick butt and pass a few more boats from other fleets on our way to the second windward mark.  The second windward rounding was smooth - rounded the mark, set the chute, furled the jib - however it did take a bit to get set for the gybe we needed to pass through the start finish line.  The gybe happened just in time to have us sailing on a close chute reach almost too close - but we made it then turned down to the leeward mark where we had a few hiccups that slowed the rounding.

In the end we had a great race - and capped off the evening by sailing the boat home as a group on a long downwind sail to the marina with Lee at the helm and the crew trying new duties.  Jammed into the MDX like sardines we took everyone back to their cars to end a great night of sailing.