Racing Notes

[MSSA Vice Commodore]

Hello MSSA Members,

Spring 2 was last night and it was one of the strangest races I have done. The forecast 8-10 from the south was present at 5:30Pm when I got on my boat. It was there at 6:00Pm when we departed the harbor. It was mostly there when we arrived at mark Y around 6:30. Then the wind shut down. There was wind to the north, which came down to us and provided a 5 kt northerly. The RC made a decision to delay for 5 minutes and then the race started. 

On board Sound's Great we watched non spin boats ghost across the line and head south to O. We planned on starting with main and genoa and then setting the spinnaker. The wind was so light that with 30 seconds to go we put the chute up and then ghosted across the line. Crocodile was to our right, Outlier to the left. Red sky sailed past but could not pull away. So the entire fleet slowly sailed towards O. All boats were in tight quarters but everyone was well behaved and there was no yelling and no boats touched. 

Eventually the wind completely shut down. All of the boats were gathered by O. No one was going anywere. It was a beautiful night (unless you wanted to actually sail) and I told the crew we would watch the sun set and then head in. A few minutes later we felt wind,from the south. My crew called for the spinnaker to set, which they quickly did, and then we rounded the mark and were sailing towards the committee boat and the finish. So it was a drag race to the finish with boats finishing seconds from each other. 

My thanks to Osprey for running a nice race and to all MSSA members who participated.

In other news....

The Single Handed race is tomorrow. The weather forecast is a lot 'sportier' than last nights. Big wind from the NE and a small craft advisory. Fortunately the tide will be flooding until 11:30 so the seas should not be too bad. 

For me personally, if the wind is 20 kts from the NE I will not leave the harbor.

Barry

Barry Lenoble

MSSA Vice Commodore

vice.co...@mssa.org

516 658-3774