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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Initially Posted - 05/10/2012 : 05:58:26

Wow! We had a cool race last night! It began with light air. We had a good start, and were looking good until we rounded the windward mark. I was assigned to work the mast, setting and rigging the spinnaker pole, a job I had never done, but quickly learned that the crew assigned to work as bow man hadn't a clue what to do. I had only a clue about the bow man's duties, as I have been studying sailing manuals, trying to learn how to work the foredeck from books. Having no alternative, I bravely took the lead, and helped him rig the spinnaker, and got it almost right, having to unsnarl one line, but we were late on the hoist. About 5 minutes later, we saw the two boats ahead of us broach with their spinnakers flying. Our skipper ordered the chute be taken down, which we accomplished just in time to avoid a broach. We sailed for 5-10 minutes on mainsail alone, because the 155 was way too much sail for the wind, and the boat was sailing fast and gaining on the lead boats. Then the skipper ordered the small #4 jib raised, but the inexperienced bow man couldn't believe the skipper ordered it, and refused to hank on the sail. The skipper sent another crew forward to see why we weren't bending on the sail, and that persuaded the bow man that I wasn't lying to him.

We raised it, and our boatspeed was around eight kts. About 300 yards from the finish, the wind lightened to about 15 kts, and the skipper ordered the raising of the 155 again. I think we were 3rd across the finish, but have no idea how we corrected over other boats - I'll guess not favorably.

I would love to have done a picture perfect job on the foredeck the first time out, but sometimes you get thrown into the pool and have to sink or swim, and truthfully, I was happy to get the spinnaker flying right-side-up. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have wanted to miss the fun and excitement of driving a good boat hard through winds changing rapidly from light air to about 28 kts, with a good skipper and crew, changing sails as the need arose. That was a thrill! The guys who couldn't make it last night will be sorry they missed it.

Steve Milby J/24 "Captiva Wind"
previously C&C 35, Cal 25, C25 TR/FK, C22
Past Commodore

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Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9089 Posts

Response Posted - 05/10/2012 : 07:00:19

Fun! What was the boat? What boats were you correcting against?

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 05/10/2012 07:00:59

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Response Posted - 05/10/2012 : 08:01:36

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Stinkpotter
 Fun! What was the boat? What boats were you correcting against?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">The boat I was on is the CS 40 that I crew on regularly. I usually work in the cockpit, but was Shanghaid, out of desperation, to work the foredeck because neither of our foredeck crew showed up last night. The lead boat throughout the race was a C&C 44, which is always well-sailed by the co-owners. The only other boat in the race that I can identify was a Catalina 27, which is also extremely well-sailed. There were other boats, of course, but I was so busy most of the time that I didn't pay much attention to them.

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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.