George Town Cruisers Regatta Salboat Races, Dan goes as Crew

     On Monday and Tuesday for Regatta Week they hold the “Big Boat Races.”  First day is the in harbor “around the buoys race,” and second day is “Around Stocking Island.”

     I was asked to help crew on Wisp In The Wind, a Catalina 34, owned by Ivan and Joy. We had met them on Honeymoon Beach a week earlier. Also in the crew was Daniel, the “Crazy Frenchman” from Water Music, and Chris from Charisma. Bill from Charisma joined us for the Stocking Island race.

     The day of the in harbor race was quiet, winds between 8 and 2 knots. Quite a fleet of boats was entered, several classes, at least 2 multihull classes and three monohull classes, each boat having a handicap to help make the race fair as there are no two boats alike. The race course is set up as a triangle and todays race has a windward start. It is a cruising race, no close quarters sailing, (these are our homes), and no special sails or spinnaker poles allowed.

Boats awaiting the start of the In Harbor Race.

     They started the multihulls first, followed by the Monohulls. To avoid any close calls, each boat has a five minute window to cross the start line and your elapsed time begins when you cross the line.

     Wisp in the Wind, (WitW), was in the middle class of Mono hulls, and started about in the middle of the window. We had to make several tacks to reach the first mark, Capt. Ivan at the helm, Dan and Chris tacking the jib, and Daniel handling the mainsail. Keep in mind that Daniel has a strong accent, a bit hard for me to understand sometimes, when he shouts, “There is no hair in the jib!” or, “Watch out for that 'dinky'."  Of course he means air and dinghy. But you get the point.

     We lose a little ground to our class-mates on the first leg, but they are bigger and presumably have a bigger (or is it smaller) handicap. None the less, we are sailing and having a fun time trying to figure out what Daniel is saying. All we have to do is sail the boat as fast as we can an hope the time correction will favor us. The second leg is a reach, and we sail right down thru the fleet of aanchored boats. At one point a woman's voice comes over the radio that she thinks the boats are coming a little close to her boat. Not to worry, it was just Denine, Daniel's wife, and it was probably in reference to us!

Wisp in the Wind passing through the anchorage.

     Third leg is close hauled, then around a second time. Of note, shortly after we start our second lap the fastest of the trimarans is finishing. The mono-hulls are averaging 5-7 knots, the tri was making 15. Wow.

Trimaran Triad - fastest boat overall.

     It was a fun race, very laid back, (we were on auto-pilot much of the race, and had crackers and cheese and wine on the second reach leg). I think we were last over the line in our class, but won't know the real results til Wednesday at the awards ceremony.

     The second day the wind was a little stronger, and proved to be just right on the windward side of the islands, 17 to 18 knots and a 3 foot sea. Just right for an easy beat. This race stated just at the middle of the anchorage, so everyone had a good view. The start was downwind, then out into the sound for a long beat, then a reach and run back to the finish, once around. The classes were a little different today, with only 2 in our class, and the winning trimaran from the day before was handicapped severely. (the owner of that Tri was also in charge of handicapping so it seemed like the right thing to do.

     We were right at the end of our start time and 5 minutes behind the other boaat in our class, aa smaller 26 footer, so we knew we had to beat them by quite a bit.

     As hoped, the wind was stronger outside in the Sound and we had a great sail, getting well ahead of our class-mate, and getting to see the larger mono-hulls as they passed us, as well as several of the multi-hulls. We made several tacks to get around the Stocking Island where we were in a group of five boats. We had a great time jockeying for position even though none of these boats were in our class. We especially enjoyed leap-frogging a fifty footer on the reach run leg, while we were drinking our pre-finish beers!

     We did beat our competition around the marks handily, but as before, won't know the corrected times til later.

Our competition in the Around the Island Race - Prima.

     Wednesday afternoon the awards ceremony was held on the beach under the swaying long-leaf pines.

     Turned out we took third in our class in the In harbor Race, for which we won 2 beers to share and for the second day's race we worked our way up to second in our class on corrected time, (out of two)!  Only missed first by 5 seconds!

     So ended 2 days of SPB, (sailing other peoples boats) and DPB, (drinking other peoples beers)! What a great time, can't wait til the next races! Thanks Ivan for letting me be a part of it!