A blow….and a blast!
As CAPER tugged at her lines in the slip, I headed out of the harbor as a crew on MOONFLEET, a Bristol 41 owned by Bob Baime.
As we slipped below the Ringling Bridge, with the mast barely missing the 65 foot high span, we were greeted with a mighty wind, steady at about 20 knots with gusts into the low 30′s. Perfect weather for a stout passegemaker like MOON FLEET. We were coming out to race in the cruising sail boat racing series, run most Sundays by the Sarasota Sailing Squadron. Only about 10 boats came out for the windy start, but the fact they were out there at all indicated they were comfortable and capable sailing in winds above twenty.
The race is run with a pursuit start, which means a boat of a certain rating starts at a specific time, giving a time allowance to various sizes and speeds of boats. theoretically, all boats should then reach the finish line, some 12 miles and many marks later, at the same time.  It never works that way. Being one of the largest we started later than all but one boat. It was our job to pursue and catch up over the duration of the race.
Bob handles the helm as we blast past a competitor.
As we rounded the first mark after a short beat into the wind, we bore off on broad reach and increased our sail area until we were surfing down the waves at 8 knots plus. That’s moving under sail in a big heavy hull. The crew worked hard to keep the boat from getting over powered in the gusts. As we rounded the leeward mark, we shortened sail to accommodate the tremendous forces generated while going upwind.
We. along with others, had our moments, resulting in a tear in the mainsail and an unruly spinnaker pole which ran afoul of a genoa sheet while tacking. That was quite exciting. But we sailed the boat well and as we rounded into the final leg of the race, we were lying fourth in the fleet. We played the shifts just right and put away two of them by about two thirds of the way to the finish. We dueled with our last remaining adversary coming into the finish, and thought we had him… but he crossed us and tacked across the line not ten feet in front us. What a race. both boats signaled each other for a job well done.
It’s been a long time since I stood in water rushing above my ankles grinding in a huge jib in twenty knots. What a blast!
Bill,
My hat is off to you guys. I saw you headng out into that gale and decided it would be too much for my little 34. Great picture of Bob at the helm. Tell me more about the TORQUEEDO? is it self contained or do you need a separate battery?
Lew
I can feel the adrenaline pumping; takes me back to yesteryear, but it sounds like you possibly could have used me at my old job, on the foredeck. Wish I ciould have been there. Great account of the race. Nice job Bill.
Yeah, You should have been there, Roger. But mostly I missed the Pomerski brothers. At the tender age of 67 it has taken two full days to recover from all that grinding. By the way, since I wrote that I have heard we did get a first place. Even more fun. Bill
Certainly brings back memories.