Four Aces
On Saturday (9/25/2004) I took part in my first regatta at the Lanier Sailing Academy. There were 13 sailors out for the gold that day, and boats and crew were randomly paired. I was assigned to West Dog, with Bill as the skipper. It came to light that Bill was in the running for the trophy. It saddened me to think that Bill wouldn’t be getting it. After all, this was my first race, and I was his only crew member.
We got the boat checked out and into Big Creek in short order, with Bill explaining some of the conventions of racing along with some hints (no sudden moves, for example). In light winds we would sit on the leeward side, which would give the sail a better shape to catch the wind. When tacking we would take in the sheets so as to match our angle with the wind and maintain a smooth path (and thus speed). Bill has done this before.
The red flag went up on the committee boat, and we circled around back to check out a board on the stern with the race route on it. Circling again, Bill started outlining our plan for that race - how we would try to cross the start line, how many tacks we would need to get to the “A” marker, and so on. The five minute horn was blasted and a flag raised, Bill started his stopwatch, and we moving about, preparing to be in position right at the start line when the race was started. I say this because I knew this was the goal, but at the time I had no idea of what we were doing. Bill was calling, “Tack,” and I’d release the jib sheet and bring it back down on the other side. Tack, tack, tack… “Trim in the jib sheet. Trim it in.” As we neared the line, Bill said we had 30 seconds remaining. We were heading right for the edge of the start line, a shallow water marker, and Bill was telling me to let out the jib a bit to slow our approach. Then, right before the start horn blast, he gave the command to tack, and trimming the sheet in he turned the rudder and brought us up and across the start line.
Almost immediately we were in front, and the remaining three races were much the same way. We switched off - me at the helm, Bill on the sheets but still skippering - for the final two races, and won every single one of them. We had some fun in the third race where after rounding the mark one boat had right of way and forced us off our course. We cut hard once they passed, my hand on the tiller and bringing the bow of our boat just across their stern.
The wind was half-decent - about 5 kts 60% of the time, the remaining 40 at 0 kts. My thanks to Bill, even though he left me to wash the boat off. It’s hard to say exactly what I learned, but I did find that I have a lot to learn as far as trimming the sails. There’s a lot that can be done to get the most out of them. We were on one of the fastest boats of the Capri 22’s, but I think our success had an awful lot to do with Bill’s sense of the wind, not to mention his excellent sense of timing for starting. We were right at the line each and every time for the start horn.