Commodore's Cup 2011

We actually went sailing last Saturday.  And not only sailing but RACING.  I am pretty sure I have not sailed, and I have definitely not raced, since the Pac Cup last summer.  We joined Joe and Carrie on Ada Helen for the Commodore's Cup Regatta at our yacht club.  We had a total of six people on the crew and were racing in the spinnaker division.  Matt and I had not flown a spinnaker since July of last year and apparently nobody else on the boat had either.  There is nothing all that difficult about sailing but once you throw in the spinnaker it can get a little dicey.  There are a LOT of extra control lines and you have to really keep an eye on the spinnaker because if it gets overpowered by the wind it can start to take over control of the boat in sudden and unexpected ways. 

So since nobody had flown a spinnaker recently nobody was super excited about flying it, but since it wasn't super windy we decided to go for it.  The idea is as soon as you round the mark of the course that closest to the wind and round it to head back downwind, you should have the spinnaker up and flying.  To be able to do this, obviously you have to be ready to go before you get to the mark.  We had all the lines run but the actually spinnaker was down below as we noticed that the mark was only a few dozen yards away.  Oops.  So Joe and Matt dragged the spinnaker up and started attaching the lines as we rounded the windward mark. 

Eventually we got the sail up and flying, then we realized that some of the control lines had been led wrong so we were not able to get proper sail shape.  After much discussion of the best way to rectify this problem and finally set a plan in motion.  It didn't go too badly but Matt did up with a bad rope burn on one finger and we had a few moments of the spinnaker tossing the boat around a bit.  We should have been moving at a pretty good pace with the spinnaker up, yet we were passed near the next mark on the course by the same type of boat that was NOT flying a spinnaker and that was NOT a good moment.  Luckily for our pride we soon past them back on the next leg of the course.  Though they passed us again before it was over. 

So we were doing the same course twice around and once we were back on the windward leg we put the spinnaker away until we needed it again.  Once again we were a bit late getting it out but at least we had all the lines run right....  sorta.  This time around, we attached the bottom of the sail backwards, so the short edge was at the front.  The front edge of the sail ends up stretched between the halyard at the top (top of the mast) and the downhaul at the bottom, at the front of the boat.  So Joe was looking up and the top of the sail was feet from the top of the mast and we were trying to get it all the way to the top.  The person who was trying to raise the sail was telling Joe that it would not go up any farther.  We could not figure out what was wrong until Joe started checking things over and realized that the downhaul was tight as a drum.  That is when he noticed the word CLEW written on the spinnaker above where the outhaul was attached. That was where the TACK was supposed to be attached, on the longer edge of the sail.  Luckily we noticed this before the sail ripped!

So we got it flipped around properly and set about trying to catch up with the rest of the fleet.  It was pretty much a lost cause at that point, though we did have a good time and the rain held off until after the race ended and never got above spitting out a few drops at a time. 

So we were last in our division but it was a good time!