From another posting of mine, here's a photo of Talisman:
I was allowed to play navigator. I didn't run us aground. I also played pit. Added to my photojournalist duties, I was busy.
Getting to the start was a minor adventure as we were lacking that rapidly rotating thing under the boat -- ummm ... propeller! Bit of a story there, and not enough time. In any case, friend (& crew) Charles pulled up along side with his RIB and we just motored out in style to the racing area.
During the pre-start I saw buddies on High Noon (below) sailing back and forth. Oh boy, I figured we were headed for a heated battle. Also lurking around the starting line was another very fast division 1 boat.
We were in Division 2, starting penultimate (in front of the two division 1 boats). We were fastest boat in Div 2 (along with some J109's & J120's.) We had a quick clean start downwind start and headed for the boats in the slower divisions.
We got within a few boatlengths of the stragglers in the division ahead of us toward the end of the first short downwind leg. We rounded cleanly and headed upwind. Soon enough we were sorted out and scooting upwind. Bow to stern ahead of me on the rail: Taylor (bow), my son Greg (pit assist), and Chad (mast).
Looking aft: Ken, Prudence, John & John.
The upwind leg to the mid-sound buoy went well. We banged the left on the 2.2 mile leg for better current and breeze. I called the layline from about a mile out with just the handbearing compass and it went surprisingly well. We rounded cleanly having passed most of the fleet, then charged downwind with John tirmming:
Going downwind we favored the right for style points (and better breeze). We made Taylor run around the boat a bit. We somehow managed to dodge the very threatening thunder storms. <<It rained on us promptly after we got back into harbor>>
Everything worked out great. Apparently we got lucky by sailing in good breeze the whole race. We were first to finish, having passed every slower boat in the race, and preventing the faster boat from passing us. We won division 2 and we won the fleet.
I had a whole lot of fun. Thanks Skipper John Bailey for inviting me and my son Greg. I hope we get invited back soon.
Link to the official results from this race:
http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=7&eID=855
Link to the Breakwater Irregulars website:
http://www.breakwaters.org/
Fairwinds!
Rando
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