Ballard Cup Monday - 6/15

Boy what a season we’ve been having. When we arrived at the boat, the sun was out but there wasn’t much breeze. This evening though, the weather would more than oblige.

As we prepared to depart, the wind started to pick up, but just a little. It was looking like a classic summer evening – around 5 knots and a short course that hopefully we’d manage to finish. At least there’d be enough to start, and the start might not be too intense (there were 31 boats in the fleet and 8 in our class that day). I’ll be the first to admit that starts make me nervous when everyone’s going full-speed – it’s a lot to keep track of.

The race committee was hoping for increasing winds, so they set an optimistic course of two laps between Meadow Point and the south barge buoy. They did hedge their bets though by including a pass through the line on the second windward leg (that way they can call a short course if necessary). The line was a bit short though – it was going to be a squeeze fitting everyone in with the north wind blowing.

We dropped into the parade making the loop before our start, and actually got a pretty good position. The bulk of our class was heading for the left side of the line, which left a nice hole towards the committee boat for us. There was a goodly flood running and not a huge amount of wind, so I was glad to have the space to work above the pin. We were a little late across the line, but not nearly as bad as I usually do.

The fleet was of split mind in their approach to the windward leg this time. Half the boats went inside right away – less current, but worse wind – while half went outside. We decided to keep the starboard tack towards the outside until we had a clear line, and then head in towards Meadow Point itself. The water was high enough that we could probably get a line on the buoy from just one shore-side tack. The approach worked pretty well for us – we didn’t catch up to the front runners, but we did pass the two closest boats (they had gone up the inside).

As we ran out of water, we tacked over onto what would normally have been a good line for the buoy, but with the flood current today we weren’t going to make it. We were in a tough position – we were out ahead of a couple other boats and they also weren’t going to fetch the mark, but it wasn’t clear if we were far enough ahead to successfully tack over and cross in front of them. We decided to use a little creative maneuvering here – we gybed all the way around rather than tacking. This allowed us to change directions without losing much boat speed, while putting our new line about a boat-length behind where a tack would have left us. Sure, it’s not as optimal in progressing towards the mark, but it left us with better speed as we ducked the starboard-tack boats rather than having to make that decision while we were still gearing up from a tack. It got us up to our tacking point and onto a line for the mark before the others tacked over – meaning they now had to duck us. It was a great rounding.

As we turned down for the next mark (and switched Javier onto the helm), the true wind (or lack thereof) became apparent. We were moving at a little over three knots with the current, but it was a struggle to keep the sails filled. The big boats with their light-wind sails had pulled way ahead, but we still had half our class behind (or at least near) us. By about the Ballard Blinker, it appeared that we were in for a classic summer evening with the wind just dying as we got to the south end of the course. Looking behind us though, the spinnaker boats seemed to be behind a wind line – it wasn’t clear if they’d out-sail the wind, or if it would come down with them. It eventually became clear the wind was coming down with them as it picked up from 5 knots to 10 and then 15 even. It was going to be a great sail after all.

Unfortunately, that also meant that most of the fleet was now approaching the south mark at the same time – the hole in the wind had brought everyone together. I had been looking forward to sailing the rest of the race in that window between the first and second classes where it’s usually just four or five of us battling each other. Now it was 24 or 25 of us – a lot more complicated. We weaved our way through the front of the pack though (we had managed a great line on the mark again) and rounded without incident. On the upwind to the first line crossing, we worked the inside – much less hassle than crossing the dozen or so spinnaker boats still headed for the south mark (even though we would have had rights on starboard) and less current to boot.

At this point, we used a trick taught to us by Captain Jim which has worked out remarkably well. Since we were seeing apparent winds well over 20 knots, we eased the main as much as possible to keep the boat flatter and remove much of the weather helm (the large rudder really slows us down if it’s angled too far). When that left the main completely luffing, we threw in a reef. We were the only boat to do so, and the advantage was immediately apparent. Sailing flatter and with less rudder drag, we were keeping up with much faster boats (and pointing just as well). We held our position all the way up, and opened a gap with the last half of our class.

The last two legs of the race were much busier than the first two, what with more boats nearby and better wind to move us. John was driving for the last part as we jockeyed ahead of Blue Lullaby and traded tacks with Smola. Some rollers had come in with the increased wind, so the last half was a bit bumpy (but in a good way). Our last tack inside has us close-hauled at an oblique angle to the rollers, with the bow alternating between riding over the trough and cutting into the waves – it was marvelous to watch. With a last tack by the breakwater, we crossed the line one second ahead of one of the Seattle Sailing J24s (who apparently was disqualified). With corrected time we finished 8th in our class, but we clearly had a good shot at 5th or 6th that day.

It’s been an exciting season, and it’s only half over.