Seems a long time ago, it was only about 2 weeks ago. I raced the Stamford Yacht Club's 80th Vineyard with my good and long-standing friends on Vamp, a J-44. I first sailed with Vamp in the notable 2002 Block Island Race, and more than a thousand miles since.
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| Vamp. Celebrating her 25th season of competition if I have that correct. |
Some action from shortly after the start
Early in the race. The forecast was for dreadfully light air. Thankfully the breeze filled in nicely.
We managed to roll over this cruising boat from a smaller, slower division. I'm sure they are nice people, though.
Gosh, I'm really lucky. I've seen more than a hundred pretty sunsets while sailing. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am. A teammate had to remind me to grab a photo of the sunset. Thanks (I forgot who)!
As navigator my job was not so much to figure out where we are (the GPS is way better at that than I could ever be), but to figure out how to get to our destination most efficiently. Sorry these pics are a bit blurry. <<I didn't want to share too many of Vamp's competitive secrets!>> We looked at how to exit Long Island Sound, considered the Gut, but then I recommended we bypass the Gut and go for the Sluiceway instead. It worked out well. One boat 15 minutes ahead of us before the Gut wound up 40 minutes behind us after we exited "the Sluice".
Lucky me, I've seen many sunsets, also seen many dawns at sea. Standing straight up is the Buzzards Bay Light Tower, the important turning mark in this race. <<Those who have competed in 10 Vineyard Races are eligible to be inducted into "The Buzzards Society">> Many years ago there was a lightship on this station.
The next leg of the course takes us southwest from the Tower to Block Island (leaving it to starboard). We still had decent breeze (better than the forecast), made a few sail changes, and got there as fast as we reasonably could. We were chasing J-44 sistership Honalee.
Honalee's spinnaker is bigger than ours. Hardly seems fair. :/
I think that was the chopper from Boatpix.com. But I haven't gone to their website to verify.
Friends (and teammates) on Xcelsior, IMX-45.
Thru the Gut
We left Orient Point Light fairly close to port. Tricky currents and squirrely breezes there.
We spent the balance of Saturday reaching back to Stamford in shifty but reasonable breeze. COuple of sail changes thrown in there. Almost becalmed, but only for about 10 minutes.
Reaching toward the finish line. The famous last words in this race are "almost there" -- then the wind dies. This time it didn't!
Most of us got at least a little helm time. In around 10 knots of breeze on that reach, 9 knots boatspeed was the magic number. I grabbed the wheel, hit it in 4 minutes, then announced loudly, "OK, I'm done!" I got a few chuckles as intended.
Final daylight picture of the race. We finished in the dark at 9:32 PM.
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We finished 5th in class (of 10) and 11th of 32 or 33 in the Division. Respectable if not glorious.
Link to results: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=1137
We had a running contest between Lenny's watch and AJ's watch -- which watch could grind out the most miles. Lenny's won by only about 3 miles (in a 238-mile race). It was tight to the end (and kind of amusing).
Thanks, Lanny and Vamp, for inviting me to race with you again. As always, fair winds!
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