April 03 2015 - Southern Straits Race - OMG!!

 
Well today is the day... First race of this season! The race that makes memories!! Weather promises of a shitty day, and it was!

Sitting here at my slip, waiting for Hank to arrive... all loaded up with water, fuel, food, safety stuff, etc. Hank arrived at 7:30 am, getting the final touches done before the crew arrives... installing my spinnaker system, removing the sail covers, warming up my engine, removing the electrical cord, etc

We pulled out of my slip around 9:00am, giving us about 1 1/2 hours to make it to the start line.

My slip is located at the top of the page, and the start line is on the right just below "West Vancouver"

Hank raised the main sail as soon as we cleared our marina, soon after, unfurled the jib. Now sailing towards Passage Island doing around 4-5 knots. Checking the GPS, the ETA at the start line would be around 11:00 am... 1/2 late! Needless to say, they started my engine, so we sailed and motored towards the start line.

Motor / sailing towards the start line, you can see downtown Vancouver on the right.

selfee

 They really had to push my engine in-order to make the start line.

We made the start line with lots of time to view the starts of all the other divisions :)

There were almost 100 boats in total.

No problem at the start line, Hank and Murray got me to the start line on time, leaving with the pack.
A lot of the race boats put up their spinnaker as soon as they crossed the start line, making for a beautiful start. We too raised the spinnaker, but as usual it was not an easy task... some of the lines got tangled up.

sailing down to Point Atkins (center of picture)

Black line - the route we sailed, red line - the route to finish the race, Blue line - the trip home.

As we got to Point Atkins, we were the leading boat of our fleet, doing really well. As we came around Point Atkins, we needed to gybe, meaning our spinnaker had to be moved from the starboard to port side. As we were preparing to gybe, the winds really picked up and began to rain. The attempt to gybe the spinnaker was a complete disaster... everything when wrong! The spinnaker hour-glassed!! as we gybed. The winds were now around 20 knots with our spinnaker out of control. Hank tried to pull the spinnaker sock down over the spinnaker, but all the lines were  wrapped up around the sock, making it impossible to dose the sail. The only way now is to lower the spinnaker by releasing the halyard, but that meant Murray would have to leave the helm station. Unfortunately, with nobody at my helm, I started to round-up, causing me almost to broach. Murray had to do two jobs at the same time - loosen the halyard and get my stern to the wind. Meanwhile Hank had to hanging on for dear-life as Murray got me under control ! :) Now lowering the spinnaker in very heavy winds, Hank finally got my spinnaker crammed into the turtle bag but the lines were a complete mess.. a "rats nest".

Murray at the helm

The jib sheets were part of the "rats-nest"...so in order to sail, we must clear the jib sheets. With the wind and waves rocking me all over the place, sitting and clearing the "rats nest" on my fore deck was impossible. Needless to say, Hank cut away the lines!
With the jib sheets cleared...Hank back in my cockpit... the jib was released and now running wing on wing! Believe it or not, we did not loose too much ground, as we were still in front of our fleet.

now under full sail - heading toward Passage Island

the happy crew!!

As we started to round Passage Island, we noticed that the winds were really picking up. Hank took the opportunity to reef the main sail and reduce the jib, while in the lee of Passage Island. As soon as we cleared the lee of the island the winds hit us with brute force. Winds around 25 - 30 knots with driving rain. In addition to all this I think the tide was against us. The winds were gusting from 10 - 40 knots (so it seemed). With such wind forces, we had 100 % weather helm... no response from my helm, even with only a bit of jib out, a reefed main, and main track right over to starboard... we rounded up, almost causing a broach. This must of happen a dozen times. The rain was coming down so hard, it was impossible to see and stinging our faces. Not sure about Murray, but Hank was beat to a "snot". Tried, cold, wet and made the executive / skipper decision... sailing is to be fun!... Hank called it in... " West Van Race Committee... this is Tarka" ... "We are withdrawing from the race"!

Now on our way home, tired and wet, but all in all a great day out on the water!

On our way home

Below shows our standing... yes we did not finish, but at least we were not the only ones. It would appear that all boats with the higher rating could not cope with the winds / waves either. We were the last boats to arrive at Passage Island, just then the winds really picked up.

To watch my You-Tube video, please click on the following link....
2015 Southern Straits - Tarka attempts the inshore

Lessons learned this race:

1. Run the spinnaker sock down and dose the spinnaker BEFORE you attempt to gybe!
2. Reef the head sail and main sail and leave them alone! constantly changing the head sail reefing for that extra 0.1 knots in not worth it.
3. I (Tarka) needs 3 - 4 people to race in heavy winds, one on foredeck, one at the helm and one for the sheets and halyards.
4.  Practice with your crew... Murray and Hank only sailed once before... and that was only in light winds and did not use the spinnaker.
5. and last : with all that wind, rain, and waves... in all that confusion.... Hank and Murray did NOT use their tethers... any work done on the deck during a race, YOU MUST USE YOUR TETHER! Man-over-board in heavy seas in no fun!
6. and last last: in heavy winds, such as today... close all hatches and ensure the door to cabin is securely closed. In case we get a knock down (which we almost did), the cabin would not fill up with water and sink the me (Tarka).

Now resting after an exhausting day... waiting for Hank to dry me out and make repairs!!

Tarka out