Forecasted breeze was medium pressure out of the south west and looking like a sunny, pleasant evening in Fidalgo bay… We got the s’westerly but it came with a bigger punch than the guessers at NOAA were betting on. Most boats motored into the lee of cap santé head to hoist small sails and tuck in reefs. During A fleet pre sequence the mighty Pangaea’s 18th century #3 headsail gave up and ripped from leach to luff, decidedly starting the carnage off proper. Course was a windward/leeward 2x around, ruh roh!
On Emoyeni we opted for a little more powered up plan with a #2 and single reefed main, because we’re stupid – All C fleet boats were late but we were the least tardy to the start and got the boat end in clear breeze with Kymodoce in tow. Our canvas proved deadly as we began to walk away from the fleet en-route to the weather mark. After the rounding we shook out the reef and contemplated a kite but decided to stick to whites. Call to gybe and the main didn’t quite get sheeted thoroughly which resulted in what we’re calling an “unzipping” of the mainsail – the boom swung with such force that we tore every single car in the luff of the mainsail out of the track, bits of plastic raining down on deck like a polymer hailstorm. We were now sailing with a loose foot and a loose luff which was okay downwind but definitely wouldn’t work upwind…
Meanwhile in the action south, Kymodoce gybed proper and set her chute – quite the sight watching Kyle Saum drive his boat under the kite and keep the rig upright in those conditions reminding me that he’s got a pacific cup or two under his belt. They ate huge chunks of distance out of our lead while Walt and the Syn-di-Cat found themselves pulling an MOB from the bay during a gybe gone awry.
Emoyeni rounded the leeward mark in the lead and took down the injured main, so for those scoring at home we now had two yachts on the course powered only by a single sail (the other being Pangaea) Still truckin in the lead to the weather mark I think the salt water may have absorbed into our frontal lobes and misfired a few synapses as we actually went ahead and set a kite sans mainsail for the final downwind leg, which in retrospect was stupid. This may have qualified for the most entertaining and/or dumbest decision in a stiff breeze in recent memory (at least). Battled a gybe and had to shuck and jive to avoid the butt end; seemed like an American Gladiators try-out, then we suffered a knock-down that was really more of a pin-down. Everybody held onto the boat and our bowman, buried up to my rib cage in water and hanging from the shrouds, had to cry uncle and dump the kite halyard – kinda reminded me of doing double damned with Andy and Steph a couple years ago. After hauling the kite aboard and untangling the mess of sheets and gear we still managed to make the leeward mark ahead of our fleet although the chute malfeasance had destroyed any chance of gaining back the time we’d need to correct for the overall win.
In the end we crossed the line 1st, pulled two buckets of green water from the bilge, and corrected into 3rd place behind Kymodoce and Little Annie. The hearty crew was made up of Deano, Barry, Rich, and Kyle with the experience to match the severe lack of judgment, and then poor Dave and Pete who didn’t know any better… Yes we wore pfd’s, perhaps the only smart thing we did. Note to self, stop putting a kite up without the main. Just don’t do it… not in 20 knots anyway. Bad Deano.
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