We set out from Leschi at about 5:40pm on Friday. Aboard were Bill and Lorie, myself and Carrie, and our friend Weston. The weather was very nice and warm, but almost no wind.

We motored until past the 520 bridge and close to Hunt’s Point before raising sails, while we waited for the wind to build. Sandwiches and beers were deployed. Still no wind, so we motored again to get down to the start line.

I wanted to get to the waterfront in Kirkland early since it was our first time at this race. Other boats starting showing up and before long there were 15 or so milling about waiting for some breeze. We saw some of our fellow J24 sailors from the Tuesday night series on Gator and Atom Ant.

The first start in the Anthony’s Home Port / Seattle Yacht Club Friday Night Series is at 7:05. Luckily about 15 minutes before the first start the breeze finally began to fill in.

The course runs one lap in approximately a 5.5 mile triangle in Lake Washington from the start at Kirkland, to a mark off Magnuson Park, another mark off Hunt’s Point, then back to the start/finish with all marks left to port. The course is reversed if the wind is blowing from the other direction, with all marks left to starboard.

We were completely confused by the starting sequence since I had failed to print out the sailing instructions that had finally been posted earlier in the week. There are 4 or 5 waves of starts, which results in a lot of horn signaling and flag raising and lowering. We chose to go when Gator went. Unless we all went on the wrong class start, I think all turned out fine.

The committee somehow predicted that the filling easterly would shift to become a southerly once we got to the first mark and sent us out from the start on a downwind run. We got clear of the handful of other boats in our start and raised our spinnaker.

The breeze built slowly and began to shift to the south during our ride out the first mark near Magnuson Park, giving us a nice reach. We were able to sail a tighter line to the mark than the wave of boats that started earlier and make up some ground. We got a solid inside overlap on a J22 on the way to the first mark. We started calling out to them early that they owed us room to round, so we were able to pass them during the rounding. We doused early, got the genoa flying and cruised through the rounding and into the new beat. The wind had shifted a bit more, making this new beat almost close hauled towards the mark at Hunt’s Point. Lorie and Weston did an EXCELLENT job of raising, jibing, and dousing. Their first time working the mast and foredeck positions.

After the rounding, most of the boats climbed further upwind and stayed left (while staying on port tack). We chose to keep on a straight line to the next mark which put us into a faster close reach than those boats. We steadily made up even more ground against the others. Our plan was ingenious.

Until the wind shifted more south-westerly. Suddenly everyone else’s plan: “don’t find yourself on layline to early with no strategy if the wind shifts unfavorably” became clear and all the boats we had passed, passed us back. Damn, our plan was ridiculous.

We managed to point up to the mark, round it wide, and swing over to starboard for the last reach to the finish. We held our position on the way in, coming in behind other J24 Gator but in front of Atom Ant by a few lengths.

The sail home was fun. We lost wind passing under the 520 and sparked up the outboard, but got into clear breeze on the other side and Weston sailed it us all the way back in.

It was casual, fun sailing. Looking forward to more outings this season.

Update – I’ve now downloaded and printed out the sailing instructions. A lot more clear now what all the multi-class horns and flags were all about. Also – our start is not until 7:25. We can leave the dock from Leschi a bit later than the 5:30 departure we planned for this trip.

I updated the schedule on the blog to note the most recent confirmations that I received from everyone. Link to the Friday Night Schedule

So our crew situation looks like:

Nate’s in for every week.
Carrie and I are only confirmed for the first week so far. But plan to lock down several other weeks as well.
Bill and Lorie are in for 4 weeks.
Peter and Suzanna are in for 2 weeks.

So out of 11 weeks of racing, we’ve got the boat scheduled to race 5 so far. Not bad. I’ll add some more weeks for me and Carrie soon.

You can see the other boats who are registered here

My expectations for Friday nights are:

- To have fun
- Don’t hit any other boats
- Get more friends and family out racing with us
- Prove Bill wrong that it is possible to BBQ hot dogs on the pushpit-mounted grill while underway in a race

Full report after the kickoff this Friday.