Avalanche demonstrates a special technique designed to reach the high and low air. The middle is just excess - they won the race by a healthy margin anyway. Picture courtesy Andrei who crews on Vampire. Andrei took many great photos of the race which can be found here. Thanks Andrei!

Well that will be one to talk about for a while. The strongest winds we have had this spring happen while we have the least number of people on the boats. This inaugural Point Roberts Jack and Jill race had 8 boats compete. The winds piped up to 22 knts by the committee boat and almost nothing by mark 2 and a half knot of current running east to west across the beach. The two races where fast and furious.           

The day got off to a slow start as the border was unexpectedly slow but that was ok as it gave us time to be ready. The show got rolling at 10:30 with two races twice around a triangle. I should have known it would be a tough day when I called the race committee to confirm to orientation of the start line and they promptly told me they had no time as there was only 4 min left in the start and they where busy! What 4 min? get the jib up quick. How far to the line? Where is every one? Where was the horn? We latter found that the club horns had run low. And the committee was right. The flags rule.

So with the Jacks first the start was slow. I would like to tell you who had a great start but I cant. All I can say is that sailing without all the crew is hard work. I think Mark and Kelly did well but then Mark had his Jib caught on his mast and tried to correct it only to find he was now in a heavy traffic line. I did see John in second place chasing Kelly in Avalanche. But that did not last long as John and Monica where quickly passed by Tumbleweed. Terry and Linda had that boat rocking and they where loving it.

The reason was that Terry and Linda where going hard core and no reef while almost every one else was trying to keep the boat from heeling hard. When we made the windward mark I chose to show my crew Ester (her first time sailing like this) how not to go around a mark by hitting it. And Vampire didn’t just hit it we rolled it down the side of the boat. I should have know I would hit it as I had just told Mark and Shawna on Amigos that I could not make the mark two min earlier. Undeterred by my own scepticism I boldly drove at the mark. Then watched two boats pass me as I sailed to the side of the course to exonerate my self. The rest of the course was a drag race. Was it me or was that San Juan Zephyros catching us? Kelly and Val on Avalanche had thought we had caught them on corrected but they where wrong. The finishing order was as follows.

1^st Avalanche

2^nd Mermaid

3^rd Tumbleweed

4^th Vampire

5^th Zephyros

6^th Amigos

7^th Mystic

Well the tally is in and the last race of the series run. It was interesting that both Div I and Div II had positions up for grabs up untill the last race. Avalanche was race comittee and arranged for two windward leeward courses while the wind was up. Every one was rushing to get out to the course and get started. 

The first race had Amigos closing the door on Mystic at the start. But Vampire needed Jabiru to be held up not Mystic as Jabirus sailed away from the beach and got better air to cross just ahead of Vampire at the windward mark. It was at this time that things began to go wrong for Vampire. They often set the record for slow spinnaker sets and today was a doozy. But for some reason Jabiru did not get away. The racing was tight as Amigos held her handicap on Vampire and Vampire had Jabiru. But as they came out of the leeward mark Jabiru took off, never to be seen again. And unfortunately Amigos who had earned 2^nd place was denied again by the wind as the wind shut off, just as she was finishing. 

In Div two Toucan had a job to do. Trailing Spellbound by less then one point they put Vic in second place with a solid win. How they fly that spinnaker I will never know.  Both Vampire and Spellbound needed to pull off a first. And Avalanche wanted to oblige them. Not even waiting for Div II to finish they sounded the horn for Div I to get back at it while we still had wind. Once more around it was. So we chugged our beer and put the sandwiches down before heading into the beach once more.  This time Amigos was after Vampire trying to shut off their wind. But Vampire clawed her way out from under them to head out from the beach to chase Jabiru. Had the damage been done? But the wind tried to give hope. As the fleet came back at the committee boat and Div two was doing its start Div one was trying to not mess with Div 2's start. After all they where trying to decide the winner of the division. Vampire and Jabiru where just going for second place as Avalanche had wrapped up the series beforehand.

A new boat to racing was seen at the start-Genesis-a hunter 35.5. Hopefully she will be out for TYC's Tuesday night races. As Jabiru stretched it out, Mystic over took Amigos. This was an amazing sight as this big Boat normally does very well in the heavy air but not the light. Mark must have a problem. But no time to see what is up. The club was fixed for an amazing sight. Both Div One and Div Two where finishing from opposite ends of the course at the same time. Div two with spinnakers and Gennakers up and Div one reaching in as the wind built.  Was it enough? The Crew of Vampire had thought it was and celebrated too soon. They thought the race had gone an hour and their 6 min 15 second time after Jabiru would give them the win and put them in a tie for the series. This would have caused a tiebreak to go to Vampire. But no they had miss-timed the race and lost by 19 seconds to Jabiru.  Vic also had failed to bring home the goods as Toucan again won the race clinching the series win. 

As the skippers get better the racing gets tighter. Lots of fun was had by all and the BBQ was great. Thanks to Kelly and Val and also Shawna. See you all at IYC and the upcoming TYC series on Tue night.   As well remember to register for the upcoming Jack and Jill race on May 2^nd. We are still looking for a volunteer for committee.