CYC Three Tree Point

After two marginal races the weather was looking epic for a great March day of racing.  The rains would pause, the skies would clear, and the wind would fill in with 10-20 kts out of the south / southwest.  Going into the race we had 3.5 points and were in first place, with Terremoto in second with 5 pts.  We knew that in heavy air we may have an upwind advantage over Terremoto so our goal was to load the rail and point it, hoping to leverage our heavy #1 in 15 kts to point high and fast. 

However, on race morning there were a few conflicting weather forecasts with some indicating that a northerly would descend and shut off the wind around the finish.  Unfortunately, race committee got nervous about the weather forecast and decided to shorten the course, selecting Alki and Meadow Points as rounding marks.  This effectively cut the course in half.

We had a good start among the maneuvering boats and got clear air on the upwind side of the course.  The fleet charged west in 12-15 kts and our plan of big sails and lots of crew was paying off.  We pinned multiple boats on the inside but we all eventually ran out of water and had to tack back.  

Hamachi powering off the start line (Thanks Jan!)

Absolutely snuck to the outside and came back on all of the boats now on port tack.  There was a lot going on and we didn't see them until the last minute and they had to duck us and called a foul.  We were in great shape up to that point, but quickly threw in a 360 and pressed on.  We all tacked out to Westpoint and there the boats divided.  We continued on into the channel to catch the now flood tide.  The fleet split with some continuing west while we decided to tack back east into Elliott Bay.  We could see boats getting lifted and stayed on the east side of the course up to the mark.  We traded a few tacts but most of our competition stayed west, and we caught a tremendous lift to sail straight to and then tack over to the mark.  This allowed us to get good separation from our fellow 40 footers.  We rounded, set the A2.5 and headed back for the finish.  

Hamachi heading for home (Thanks Jan!)

Heading downhill we had 10-12 kts of wind, which means Hamachi is well below the point we could plane, but we still made 8-9 kts through the water.  We jibed east towards Magnolia, jibed again to to make Westpoint, then jibed at Westpoint for the Meadowpoint buoy.  The forecast had the wind filling in from the south between noon and 1pm, and it was accurate.  Unfortunately, instead of riding this wind home from Three Tree Point, it meant that the slower boats in the shortened course were blown back up to the leaders.  We rounded Meadowpoint ahead of the wind line and then beat the short distance back to the finish line in the building breeze.  Like the previous weeks, we crossed fifth overall behind the big ORC sleds and took PHRF line honors.

Happy crew: Jason, Shawn and Chris (Thanks Jan!)

In the end Terremoto and Absolutely used the building southerly to close the gap on corrected time with Terremoto finishing first, Absolutely second and Hamachi third in class.  Overall those boats finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the 58 boat fleet.  On corrected time Absolutely finished 40 seconds ahead of us, so our screw up at the start became significant.  We wish we could have sailed the long course, because the weather would have played to our advantage, instead of detriment - but that's sailboat racing!

Results: http://www.cycseattle.org/results/2017_specific/centerOA.html#r3phrf_nw

The Three Tree Point (Alki) race standings meant that Terremoto finished first in our division for the CYC Center Sound Series with 6.0 points (4 - 1 - 1), we finished second with 6.5 points (1.5 - 2 - 3), and Absolutely took third with 9.5 points (1.5 - 6 - 2).  Our generous gift of sharing first in class on the Blakely Rock Race was significant, but not material as Terremoto had us on tie breakers.  There aren't any official overall rankings, but if you add up the points for the 60 boat CYC Center Sound Series fleet, Terremoto finished first with 20 points (4 - 12 - 4) and Hamachi finished second with 28 points (1 - 21 - 6).  Given our experience with the boat, we are really pleased.  Further, we made an impression on the fleet and I think many are trying to figure out "who are the guys with the blue boat?"

We compiled some of the GoPro footage from the three races into a summary.  Only sailboat racers can watch videos of sailboat racing.  Most people find it equivalent to watching paint dry…  Enjoy!