5-7-11 RACING
at 5.08.2011
by Pam
It was a sort of messed up day. Our start time got pushed to noonish after learning that White Rock was closing traffic for a half marathon. Then we arrived at White Rock Boat Club where they are beginning construction to install bathrooms so getting to the boats required walking a plank. We had a number of Butterflyers on the docks but in the end only three from CSC sailed and another three did duty. When I opted to do duty, I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into. Luigi had injured himself playing soccer so that meant no pulling anchors for him and Bruce was a week away from returning to being fully operational which left me pulling anchors.
I can't recall the last time I did duty with Bruce, but he's a bit of a speed demon. He backed out of the slip so fast that Luigi and I both thought we were going to plow into the boats behind us. Bruce suggested we brace for impact rather than commenting unnecessarily (or something to that effect). Retrieving marks was certainly an adventure. He doesn't believe in pussy footing around and seemed to prefer a drive-by mark retrieval. My kind of guy!
With just Sandy, Burton and Brad sailing the finishes were Sandy, Burton and Brad all day. But that's sort of boring so below are some links to video from Brad's boat. I jumped on with him for the third race and the tiller handle broke. There seemed to be lots of weather helm. Bruce suggested the boat wasn't balanced. I think he made reference to my weight being a factor but I just discounted that out of hand.
Seriously, Brad would like help/comments on his upwind and tacking technique and he'd also like volunteers to mount his camera on some of the better skippers boats to capture their technique. Also, his rig was totally loose and bouncing around and I've sailed double-handed on a Butterfly before and never encountered that kind of weather helm. Of course by the time I took the helm it was just a stub. Perhaps one of our better skippers can jump on his boat and see what they think. I think the mast rake needs some adjusting and his side stays seem to be too long.
