July 11, Report

Report from Shields #59, Lisa, Summer Series Race No. 3

Summer racing in Narragansett Bay is what keeps me going during the dark, cold days of winter. It’s all about the sun, the steady, warm southwesterlies, the sparsely populated waters of a late Wednesday afternoon. Odd how I never seem to remember the more challenging days like, oh, I don’t know, yesterday maybe?

Yesterday, our 30-boat fleet (thanks for that vast expanse of a well laid-out starting line Robin!) saw fog, current that shouldn’t still be kicking so hard, a 57,000-ton car carrier, and a dank, cool southeasterly. Of course I’d probably think it was a terrific night if we’d gone hard left on the first weather leg instead of chasing tendrils of stronger breeze in the middle/right. Can you believe how launched those left-handers were after only one leg? Obviously (well, now it’s obvious) there was considerable current relief on the left?-hand side of the course. Was it the fabled Rose Island Cone Effect? The crew of #202, Tom Glassie and Chuck Allen, rounded the weather mark in first, and were so far ahead we could barely make out which Shields it was from our position in the cheap seats. “The call was: ‘head for the fog’,” said Chuck this morning. “Then, on the downwind leg #107 took a flier and stayed on the east side of the racecourse. We decided to stay with the top five boats, which went west, instead of covering #107, and they got around us.”

The downwind leg was our chance to grind back some places, and we did. Instead of jibing directly after the weather mark, we stayed close to the War College, following #107, (note to John Burnham and Reed Baer: your team is even faster and smarter when the owners stay home). Team Grace, with Matt Buechner at the helm along with Rachel Balaban, Peter Schott, Ted and Rick Hood took the lead and never looked back. On #59, thanks to a steadier breeze, we were able to round the left-hand gate mark in a much better position than when we rounded the weather mark. As we were approaching the leeward gate, we noticed that Robin and his crew of stalwarts had upped the anchor on Ida and were headed upwind to finish the race by the weather mark, which, considering the visibility, was a great call.

Our tactical plan, and it was pure, inspired genius, natch, was to go left on what became the final weather leg. That call, combined with our effective downwind leg, allowed us to finish 13^th out of 30, which was a whole lot better than we would have done had the race ended at the leeward mark. #107 took the gun, followed by Tom Derecktor’s #17, which was stacked with industry talent and sailing fast, but was also un-registered and un-inspected, so the third boat to cross the line, #202, actually took second place. In third was #53. For the winner, the race took exactly one hour to complete. The last-placed boat finished 21 minutes later. Thanks to the crew of #232, who pulled RC duty last night, Robin’s crew on Ida, and the crew of Lime Rock.