Sarasota in March. What a great place! The water is an emerald green, The temperatures in the 70's and 80's. The winds were everything from light to overpowering. I got to sail with Don Perry from Sarasota on his Sunfish/Laser boat, Red Hot #14061. Don is a great skipper, a real pleasure to crew for.
The winds on Friday were moderate, maybe 10kts. We didn't have very good finishes, mostly due to some problems with Red Hot's mast pre bend. After the races on Friday, Don decided to reduce it, thinking that the boat was under powered.
Saturday, the winds were stronger, 15kts steady with gusts to 20kts. Our performance improved, and we took finishes in the first two that were higher than on Friday.
For our 3rd race on Saturday, There were 11 boats in our fleet and we had finished our first upwind leg, rounded the weather mark and set our spinnaker on starboard tack, with the wind on our starboard quarter. As we approached the halfway point on the leg, The spinnaker began to pull much harder through the sheet. Red Hot began to plane and roll side to side. Don called for me to ease the sheet, which I did, releasing the wind from the sail and decreasing the thrust on the boat. The winds were now a steady 20kts, and the gust didn't stop. I tried to refill the spinnaker, but the boat was still overpowered. Don called to douse the spinnaker. I released the sheet again and the gust increased by half, then shifted to the port side of the boat. The boat yawed hard to port and rolled. I tried to climb up to the weather rail as the gunwale went under the water, but I was too late. the boat went over and I was thrown into the water. I came up out of the water and made eye contact with Don. Beyond him I saw four Day Sailers floating on their sides, their centerboards extending into the air. I went to the centerboard handle and pushed it down, extending our centerboard. We climbed on the hull after releasing all our running rigging, and stood on the centerboard, but the boat wouldn't right. A powerboat came near and we tied a line to our chainplate. Slowly, they pulled the boat and it began to right. After untying the tow line, we got back in and bailed her out. There wasn't much to bail, actually. The self bailer took care of it. Luckily, The only damage was to the masthead wind indicator, which was apparently knocked off when the masthead came to rest on the sea bed. We thought that was why the boat wouldn't right until it was pulled out of the sand by the powerboat. 8 of the 11 boats went over in that wind blast according to the Race Committee. Those that did not go over had some small amount of centerboard down and had jibed to port before the blast hit.
Since we had outside help, we couldn't finish that race. But we continued to race that day. In one of the best comebacks I've been a part of in my sailing career, we won the next race, with a fleet of eight boats. Our start was good, but Don saw the windshift early and took it well before anyone else. That put us ahead at the first mark rounding and we stretched it out. Bob Lemaire broke out of the pack behind us and took second that race.
Of the boats that capcized, the ones that continued were the newer boats that had improved flotation. I gained a lot of respect for the Sunfish Laser boats self rescuing capabilities. I also learned that the McLaughlin boats have larger seat tanks than the O'Days, so they have less water inside when they are righted.
We raced again on Sunday, completing the regatta with 12 races total. Winds were light at the start and built as the day continued. The last race Don made a great tacticl move. the boat htta was nearest to us in the standings came up on our weather quarter as we approached the finish line. Don luffed the,m up oto head to wind, and the other boat tacked away. But in doing so made contact. So he had to do a penalty turn and we finished ahead of him.
I think we came in perhaps 4th or 5th overall, I had to leave before they awarded trophies to make my flight out. Hopefully, I'll get some scores from the internet sometime soon.
Bob Lemaire and his son Mark won the regatta, they sailed a great series. I think Del Foster from North Carolina took second. Bob had a new suit of sails from Jotz, and they seemed to answer well.
Posted by Bob at March 22, 2004 01:43 PM