[Rhodes22-list] Saturday at the races

[Steve]

Good job, Wally.
Steve


--- Wally Buck <tnrhodey at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Warning shameless bragging below ….
> 
> We had our February races yesterday. After 3 races
> in January I was in first 
> place and I really wanted to do well. The forecast
> was calling for 20 plus 
> with strong gusts. Temps were supposed to stay in
> the 30s with a 30% chance 
> of snow. Saturday morning looked okay so I headed
> out to the marina. We only 
> had 7 boats for the skipper’s meeting but everyone
> voted to go out.
> 
> We had 4 boats in the “A” Fleet (J33, Hunter 34,
> O’Day 28, and a  Seaward 
> 23. The “B” Fleet included a C30 (crew of 3),
> Newport 28 (crew of 2), and 
> me. The A fleet usually has crew of 3 or more and
> the B fleet is single 
> handlers or boats with crew that don’t want to fly
> spinnaker. We usually 
> have a bunch more boats in each fleet but the
> weather kept the sane ones 
> home.
> 
> Heading out the weather was fine, a nice wind but
> nothing like the 20 plus 
> forecasted. As the actual race count down approached
> the wind jumped from 10 
> –15 to something like 15 – 25. Plenty of white caps
> now and of course it 
> started to snow. I have good gear so I was dry and
> warm. I started out with 
> main lowered and furled and my 125 out all of the
> way. The boat was balanced 
> but twice gusts had me taking water over the rail. I
> furled the genny in a 
> little more and was fine for the long beat upwind.
> The Catalina 30 soon 
> pulled out of the race because they had way too much
> sail up and the guy’s 
> wife and crew were freaking out. You could hear
> yelling across the water! So 
> now we were down to 6 boats.
> 
> I had a great start (first over) but the J33 flew by
> me. Like many J boats 
> you sit on the deck. Waves were rolling down the
> side and they were already 
> soaked with crew scampering across the deck. I was
> nice and dry drinking my 
> cup of Joe with the CD-player on. After the Catalina
> 30 pulled out I only 
> had to stay close to the Newport 28. Well the
> Newport was forced to put a 
> reef in soon after the start so I was able to build
> a huge lead. The snow 
> quit and the wind kept blowing. Our windward mark
> was a big island 3 miles 
> down river for a race total of about 8 miles. For
> the run home I raised the 
> boom and let everything out. I hit 7.3 MPH on the
> GPS. The A fleet finished 
> well ahead of me but I finished over 30 minutes
> ahead of the Newport 28. The 
> C30 did not finish so I got First Place in my fleet.
> 
>
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