Great 1st race of the season. Winds were 8-13 and variable, current ebbing at start ~.8 kts building to ~ 1.7 kts at finishing time with 0 to 1 foot chop. Fortunately the rain was done for the day, but the temps could have been a little warmer! The JYC assigned class for the spring series puts us in Spinnaker A (<= 119). The course sailed was # 140 which was 7.1nm.

The crew performed well. We were too far from the start gun to hear it and missed the flag signals, so were unable to position exactly where we wanted to be, but made a good recovery to sync the 1 minute signal. Timer was not set on menu to start resulting in a missed opportunity to sync at the 4 minute signal. There were good tacks upwind to JYC-V, and good calls on where to be to optimize for current relief and cover the fleet. I over compensated a little for the current on calling the layline for the windward mark, but it did provide the position for a good bear away stbd spinnaker set. This allowed better positioning than some of the boats that were still setup for a port rounding.

Downwind speed was good with good jibes. The C&C30 Nyabinghi owes us 33 seconds per mile and we stayed ahead of them for the entire upwind leg, then downwing until just past the Newport bridge. We kept in the favorable current downwind on the way to JYC-D and executed a perfect Canadian rounding the mark.

The final upwind leg to the finish required that we honor G11 by the dumplings, then allowed us to bear away to the finish. This required constand trim of jib and main as the wind shifted near the land contour. The instruments provided good information to the finish line outboard end before the mark was visible so we could match the course over ground to the mark bearing. There was up to a 12 degree compass & COG offset headed to the finish line with the adverse current diagonally across the bow.

Vento Solare finished 2:08 behind C&C30 Nyabinghi but corrected ahead of them by 2:14. Samba & High Energy finished behind Vento Solare. We corrected over Samba but Ed Adams crushed it beating us by 3:32 on corrected time.

The takeaways this week are:
– Ask JYC to broadcast signals over the radio for the start when they use the dock because the line is so long we can’t hear the horn or see the flags at the other end of the line
– Make sure timer is ready to start and person on timer pays attention to the start sequence.
– Crew needs to be conscious of weight placement. When sitting on rail, keep bodies closer together and forward to minimize the "dogbone" effect and get the transom out of the water
– Bill turn the mast base shackles so thumb screw projections are facing inboard. This sometimes hangs up the inhauler on tacks.
– Bill remeber to start RaceQs before race. Bill forgot, but we do have a good playback track from Expedition.
– Bill put smoother plastic on course board surface so it erases better