Yesterday was a Fract 29 kind of day. We sailed in breezy (15-18kts) Easterly. There was a two foot chop. The fleet was small; just three 29s: ForSail, Mojo and us. We agreed to sail "B" and only use blades, which worked out well for us being short handed.
The course was Z, Y, T, A, Z, RYC. The first leg was a broad reach. The only beat was from Y to T. The start reminded me of when we used to sail JYs on Friday nights. The committee boat was moored somewhere in the fleet. Horns sounded at random and no one could see the flags never mind understand their meaning. It was a fiasco. Jim hit the mark and we restarted thinking we were over early. It looked like Mojo would run away with things.
Somehow Jim and us managed to round Y within a boat length of Mojo. They tacked immediately. We sailed towards South Amboy for another minute or two. We felt wound up on the inside when we tacked and were about a length behind at the first crossing halfway up the leg. From there we went left into the channel tacking just shy of the port tack layline. We tacked into Mojo lee bow; they and Jim over stood the mark, which allowed us to round second.
We surfed our way past Mojo and to about even with ForSail. Jim worked inside us at the lighthouse and gybed first. We held low. Mojo rolled us and then sat on ForSail. This allowed us to round the final within a boat length of both of them. We won on corrected time.
We added six turns to the uppers and lowers from base. The backstay was maxed.
Crew
Ted
Wayne
Ruth
Muffy
Steve S
Anna
me