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Jim Baumgart's Great Adventure

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Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9089 Posts

Initially Posted - 10/13/2011 : 15:22:45

I don't know how many are following past commodore Jim's racing stories on FB, but here's the latest and greatest... (Mad Hatter is his nemesis--a J-something, I forget exactly. Jim is racing a 30' Pearson Flyer, "Sly McFly".) <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Regatta de los Todos Santos

Joe and Banda left the boat and I begged Tahoe and his girlfriend to crew on Sunday. She had never even been on a boat. We had a crew of 4 plus a passanger. Keith on foredeck, Larry trimming, Tahoe on main, and Adriana helping. We motored out to the start in no wind, I told them to get the wind finder out. But by 11 AM we had 10 knots, wind finder stayed in the bag. With 25 boats on the starting line, and Mexican boats that don't race much I decided to take a clear air start at the non-favored pin end and just stay clear of the traffic. I thought we had a good start but we were behind Mis Behave and Mad Hatter. About half way to the islands we caught up to Mis Behave and were faster and out pointing them. We took them up, they were forced to duck below us and fall off. Then we started going for Hatter. As we got close to the island the winds dropped from 12 to 10 and we started to get shifts. We saw Hatter in a hole and they tacked to come towards the island so we went out and high. We got closer on the tacking duel to the island. They went up with their symmetrical spin and we went with the asym. On the back side they went deeper and we were forced to stay higher with the reaching sail but we gybed inside of them and went real close to the island shaving off about a ¼ mile. Many of the other boats held on to symmetrical spins on the way back and were blown way far south away from the finish line.

We could, and did, lay the finish from 7 miles away. Winds were gusting into the 20s. Boat speed was 7, 8 and sometimes in the 9s. As we cleared the island, we stayed at a AWA of 75, laid the finish, and worked every puff - now never below 8 knots boat speed. Once again, We got overpowered in gusts up above 23 knots but we could handle these (after the previous night). We caught Hatter and passed. They could not hold their symmetrical, and they changed to the jib. We just put the hammer down and pulled away. They went back up with the spin to try to keep up and they could not keep it full. So back to the jib they went at a cost of many boat lengths. By this time it looked like we would be 2nd to finish, well ahead of Hatter by 5 minutes or more. We all sang "nah nah nah hey hey hey good bye! to Hatter". We crossed the finish line at 8.5 knots of boat speed and doused spin and under main alone were making over 6 knots back to the marina.

We ended up in 3rd overall, Mis Behave corrected over us by less than 2 minutes (we owed them 17 minutes). Hatter got 4th. The Laser 28 got 1st.

It was our sweetest place. Hatter came over with a bottle of rum after the race and toasted us and sat with us for an hour drinking. They showed great class and sportsmanship. That moment was better than anything. They said "It was about time…." That we beat them. Such a class act. +50 rep points to them!

There were some big prizes, and we won a weekend for 2 at the Hotel Coral in Ensenada. I was very happy and proud to give it to Tahoe George and his GF. Tahoe and I both cried when I gave it to them. She was a trooper, never got sick, and I suppose she thinks that this is what sailing is, you go out, sail around at 10 knots of boat speed, pass all the other boats, go to a party and then they give you a big trophy.

Thanks everyone it is so far our greatest moment in sailing.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Dave Bristle
Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT
PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage before going over to the Dark Side (2007-2025); now boatless for the first time since 1970 (on a Sunfish).

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 10/13/2011 15:23:48

JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 10/14/2011 : 10:26:40

I don't follow Jim's exploits on FB, but I sure am proud to know him and to have sailed as a guest crew member on his former boat, a Catalina 25!

It's great that he now has the Pearson Flyer!

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skrenz
Captain

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USA
351 Posts

Response Posted - 05/11/2012 : 01:07:27

I sailed that same race with him in his Catalina 25. Similar sort of story. Another boat was driven by his friend and he was always trying to beat him. Same kinds of wind. Same kind of race. We were behind on all of the upwind leg. But when we rounded the island the wind was at our backs and he hoisted his spinaker. He handled the sail and I drove. We were going so fast we were surfing the wave tops. At times that Catalina 25 was doing nine knots on the knot meter. What a rush.

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RiverJames
Deckhand

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USA
9 Posts

Response Posted - 05/28/2012 : 00:04:11

As the new owner of his old boat (Cat 25 now Knot On Call), I hope to do the Todos Santos race after the SD to Ensenada race in OCtober. I hope to live up to the standard.

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.