Encinal Jack Frost Series #1 2011

Yesterday was the first of the Encinal Yacht Clubs Jack Frost series. There were enough Santana 22's to get our own start. I'm not sure what the count was, maybe 8 boats comprising of "Carlos", "Kitten", "Dominatrix", "Bonito", "Pariah", "Byte Size" and a few others whose names escape me. The race was put into postponement while the wind filled in.

There was some inter boat chatter to figure whether the race would be run PHRF or White Sails (Class Sails Only). Everyone ended up settling on white sails, though it would have been a lot of fun to have been running spinnakers.

The committee boat pulled up anchor once, maybe twice while waiting for a clue to how the wind would settle. The little Whaler's ran the course marks here and there as well. Once that had settled down and we got within range of the new start finish line Thijs removed the engine from the stern. As he lifted up, his signature hat fell off the back. he handed off the engine to me while Anna asked an Olson 25 behind us to grab it if they could. I was down below securing the motor when the hat hand off occurred. There were a few banging noises and I never asked what happened, only saw the hat had returned and no one appeared especially upset.

I crewed on Byte Size and we had a decent start in the first race, but ultimately lost a couple of places to come in third or fourth. The first race started in light winds that seemed very shifty. We got headed a couple of times.

The second race saw half the fleet cut down the left side of the windward leg, we cut right with the remaining boats. This saw us in the lead and put us into a period of confusion concerning whether the race was one or two laps. My "Big Picture" focus was not there for this race and I hadn't paid attention to the race committee flags, nor had Anna or Thijs (We opted to treat it as two laps). We decided the race was ours to lose and tried to not make any errors that would put as back in the field. We watched during the last downwind leg a duel between Bonito and another boat that saw Pariah catch and pass both.

The racing was as exciting and tight as any I have taken part in, despite being a little on the slow side (don't recall the fastest speed). Other than being cold and cloudy, the conditions were safe and sane.

The last thrill of the day was when Anna let me take the boat into the dock under sail. No snafu's other than my forgetting they don't have a boom lift thus dropping the main resulted in the boom end in the water, felt a little clumsy. "Sorry guys" if you happen to read this.