This was another race to nowhere, but for a different reason. The plan was to race in the second race of the second series of the AYC Frostbite series on the Tartan 101 that I have been racing with for sevral seasons now.
The conditions were predicted to be sporty with temps in high 30F range and winds in the 12 to 15 knot range with gusts to around 25 knots. After last week's abandoned race, we were enthusiastic to get out there and actually race. With a wind range between 12 knots and 25 knots, we were debating whether we would reef or just tough it out in the gusts since we are not able to shake out reefs during frostbite. We had gotten out early to sample the conditions and make a decision on our choice of our sail configuration.
In the harbor we were seeing- 10 knots gusting to 15, and that suggested that we would need to go with a full mainsail. After Can 1 and and out of the lee of the Naval Academy builds, we got hit with our first big gust, almost in the 20 knot range that only lasted 10-15 seconds. That still bode well for using the full mainsail. Then we hung the corner at Trident Point and were hit by the wind coming down the Severn. Now the base wind was in the high teens and the gusts were breaking 20 knots at their peaks.
I was trimming the mainsail and coming out of the biggest of those gusts, I looked up at the sail to dial in for the 'lull' and noticed the aft end of the upper pocket inverted. That seemed crazy in that much wind, but I eased the fine tune and brought up the traveler to load up the head of the sail and pop it out. When I looked up the whole batten appeared to be inverted. I mentioned that to the helmsman who sail that the batten pocket seemed to be separating from the sail. We quickly bore around ducked into a lee and brought the sail down for inspection.
Sure enough the batten pocket had separated from the sail and our race day was over. Bummmmmeeerrrrr!
Jeff