This weekend I participated in the 30th running of the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge. After poor perfromance on windward/leeward courses last year, we participated in the CRCA fleet, running longer distance races around mid-Bay government marks.
We didn't end up getting to race Friday due to a lack of wind, but we got some sailing in while waiting on postponement in an effort to convince RC to start a race. No luck.
Conditions started out very light Saturday morning, but filled in and allowed a delayed start. In the meantime, several of the crew swam off the back of the boat and cooled off. The race started light, but wind steadily built throughout the day and we ended up with ideal racing conditions. We pushed a Bavaria 38 off the line at the start, and we had some friendly competition with them throughout the day, ultimately catching them on corrected time. We sailed a great, clean race, and managed a 4th place finish.
Conditions started light Sunday morning as well. We set up for a spinnaker reach at the start, but the wind shifted, and a strong current very nearly pushed me into the RC boat. After the hectic start, we carried our reaching kite at a very high angle, but still couldn't get high enough to reach our mark. We doused and ran two solid beating legs and two reaching legs. RC shortened course before our last mark, and we never got in a spinnaker run where we hoped to make up time. Great crew work from everyone on the boat, but we only managed a 6th place today.
All in all a solid weekend of racing. The whole crew worked hard and we sailed fast, clean races. I hope to see our place improve as we continue to tighten up details in our crew work and upgrade sails & equipment on the boat.
Duking it out with Jahazi