By my rough calculation, if you take the excess of my weight and height from the three biggest guys to turn out to race this Thursday night at the Rat, Tobin Young, Richard Sewards and Jeff Fullerton, and if you could by some trick of DNA reconstitute the body mass into another single human being, you would have enough to create a shorter version of me.
Actually a very much shorter version than me (about 16 inches tall). The point is, in a hard southwesterly in the Outer Harbour sailing in Lasers where weight and height matter, I was outgunned. The closest we had out there to a "me" was Nigel Heath, which meant I was outgunned upwind by the big boys and downwind by Nigel's skill.
Regular readers will know that I had been brutalizing myself the previous two days in virtually identical weather so I was very much up for what was to come. The fun started with Tobin showing off his Bermuda style (he goes to Bermuda Race Week every year with Pam) by leading the first race wire-to-wire. Meantime, Brutus No. 2 Jeff Fullerton, put the truck in high gear for a convincing 2nd place. I snuck in between him and Brutus 3 Richard Sewards for third.
The next race was proof that my work of the previous two days was worthwhile. A pin start with everyone else at the boat gave me lots of room to sail, and sail I did. I hiked "bag out," as they say, and worked very very hard at looking further upwind at the wave field than I am used to. That allowed me to pick my way though the chop more successfully. I tried this last year, and forgot how well it worked. When I lift my head up a bit and turn to look toward the oncoming waves, I am much better steering through them. Despite my size, I was fast. So fast, in fact, that Richard commented after the race that I seemed really hooked up upwind. It was wire-to-wire for me this time, and very satisfying indeed. The only disappointment was that Tobin had to drop out, which meant I was still not tested against the fastest guy on the day.
In the next race it was Richard's turn to shine. His upwind was always as good as Tobin's and Jeff's, but he is excelling on the reaches now as well. He credits the first Masters clinic for it, where David Wright showed us how a tighter vang and outhaul will make a big difference on a reach. Jeff was 2nd again (he would record nothing but 2nds for the night) and I came in third.
Tobin was back for race four, and promptly told us with his tiller that he was the hot hand for the night by scoring another bullet. He may have had the most balanced run of all of us, being fast on all three points of sail. My game plan throughout the night was to hang on to the big boys and, if I was close at the last top mark, I could always pick off someone on the downwind-except if it was Tobin.
The last race was the most interesting of the night, where I rounded the top mark first after a nifty move on Nigel. I was sailing parallel and very close to the port tack layline on port. About half way up the beat, Nigel came up to me on starboard. I held on port because I was expecting him to tack under me because we were so close to the layline, and I knew he would know that. He kept going, however, so it was clear that he wanted the boatlength I would have to give him when I ducked him. Not only that, if I ducked him, he could tack on my hip and hold me off the starboard layline like I did to Richard a couple of weeks ago (see entry: "A Game of Inches" ). That would not do, so I tacked to starboard under him. It forced me to have to wait for him to tack back, but I knew he wouldn't want to overstand. We were too far away from the mark for him to be able to force me to follow him around the mark (which is what overstanding will do when you are a few boatlengths from the mark), and we had Tobin heading for the starboard tack layline ahead of us. Overstanding would have let Tobin through.
So, I tack to starboard, and wait for him to tack back to port. When he does, I tack immediately and sit on his hip to the layline. Tobin is slightly behind, Nigel has to wait for me to tack, and I end up rounding first.
But that was not the end of it. On the reach both Tobin and Nigel take me to school and pass me inside. Nigel in particular shows a fantastic turn of speed off the wind and pokes his nose between Tobin and I, then proceeds to walk away from us on the second reach. At the leeward mark, he is at least 20 boatlengths ahead.
We round the top mark in this order: Nigel, Tobin, me, and I figure I will remain third because both of them are very good on a run. But then, like the days before, someone somewhere hits a switch and the wind shuts off (see entry: "Racing Mad" ). Literally shuts off. One moment we are on the edge of control, the next we are snapping off controls to find some power. But I went right this time (on Tuesday when the same thing happened, I went left and two boats passed me) while Tobin and Nigel stay left. Boy, did they stay left. They stayed and stayed until the entire fleet passed them, in fact. I had to laugh, and couldn't resist asking them if they needed a tow once I crossed the line. I hope they weren't offended.
It is unusual to get the kind of breeze we had in the last three days in the Outer Harbour. We suffer mostly from windlessness as the summer nears. After the pain of Wrightsville, it was good to get a chance to hike hard at home, and maybe, maybe see a glimmer of light at the end of this windy tunnel.
Rob Koci races in both the Laser Full-Rig and Laser Radial fleets around District 3. Currently, Rob is the District 3 secretary and maintains a frequently updated race diary on D3Laser.com. Rob's home port is St. James Town Sailing Club in Toronto, Ontario.
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