tri-island race 21 august 2004

This Saturday found the crew of the lighn-up participating in the tri island race in the sf bay. We started just after noon (first to cross the starting line) from the ryc and made our way towards red-rock for the first mark of the course in a stiff breeze and choppy water conditions. We found that these two variables made for a very wet ride (especially for the two most forward crew on the rail). We rounded red-rock to port with two much larger boats ahead of us without much that we needed to worry about…everyone was still onboard…the other boats weren’t too far ahead, and we still had plenty of beer. Tacking over, we headed south, still taking a lot of water over the bow and onto most of us with large splashes. Going along the Marin coast we were greeted by flattening water, lighter conditions, and one of the two boats ahead of us was just sitting there in the entrance to Raccoon Straights…attack!!! We ran out the starboard battery and fired gun by gun as we bore on her stern, sending her crew and pieces of rigg……wait, that’s not at all what happened….I’ve been reading too much bolitho. We, staying away from our bobbing counterpart, entered the strait, passed the other boat (a J105), and made it through against the flooding water that could have been our downfall. Sailing alongside Angel Island (our second mark) we were now headed towards the city, Alcatraz, and when the kite came up, headed for our last mark….Treasure Island…with the flood now off of our beam and slightly astern we were going quite fast (can’t recall the top speed, it was fast, but it wasn’t the record). Treasure Island came and went without too much trouble at all; a jibe, jib up, kite down, everyone back on the rail, strange puffs that I did my best to call but always seemed to call wrong, and another wee tot of rum. The final requirement of our race was to sail back the length of the central bay and pass through the finish line (as all races end; with a finish line). We completed the course without letting the J105 ahead of us again which left just one boat ahead of us (a SC40 I think) but with corrected time we won the race beating boats much larger than us. As always we all had a great time and made our “Admiral”, who couldn’t be there, proud.
Bruce (helm, big booming voice) Tiffany, Karl, and Dave (trimmers, always willing to make a joke jokers) Mom (support, encouragement, bartender, without whom non of this would be possible) Cori (pit, railmeat) Eric (for-deck, sailwhore).