Pleasant Sailing

Sunday racing turned out to be some of the most pleasant sailing there could be. Morning rains and afternoon clouds kept all but the most foolish motor boats off the lake. The wind was North blowing 8-10 with gusts to 12, shifting only slightly, maybe 5 degree shifts as the big ones.

I was late to the start because I was giving away my E-Scow. I actually still get a bit choked up thinking about it. But the family that got it will use it a whole lot more than I do now.

There were 4 races but I had to leave after 3 due to time constraints. For the first time I started to feel the boat perform a little bit for me. It takes a lot of concentration but I'm getting there. It's not habit like in a laser where I can sail by feel while I concentrated on other things. But I could get the speed when I needed to.

In the first two races I tried to mix it up at the start. With only 4 boats it is hard to create a crowded line. But I was able to do it a bit and got a couple nice clean starts. Only a couple bad tacks, one of which forced me to protect the layline to keep the lead. Downwind I tried a few things. I'm not comfortable with where my safe wind lines are yet, where the shadow is from trailing boats. I played a bit trying to put myself in a shadow and feel it on my neck. The wind was so steady that there wasn't going to be much other opportunity ever to do this. I learned some.

Race 1 last windward Brent P tacking dueled me. But he wasn't close enough to really impact the result. Race 2 I won by a clear margin, maybe a minute.

Race 3 I started on the unfavored end alone, and concentrated only on boat speed, decided to one-tack the mark and actually tacked slightly late. I learned that centered traveller is slow, but small movements in it make a big difference. The speed was enough to get me to the top mark first and I held that to the finish.

Leaving race 4 to the other three boats was tough. But I had an extra kid that I had to take home by dinner time. If my mental calculations are good, I'm still in front from a scoring standpoint. but I really need to sail against a few other people to know if I am making progress.

I sure do enjoy this boat though. Downwind is hot and slow, but also my biggest challenge.