Between 3pm and 5pm the wind shifted 180 degrees even though it was blowing 15+. Closer to race time it seemed to have settled on a Northerly, but then continued to shift 15 degrees or so to the east or back to the west each time the committee nearly had the course set.

This left time for us to set and douse the spinnaker, realize that we were STILL delayed, set spinnaker again and did about 8 well needed practice jibes down the lake. After feeling a lot better sequenced, we headed back up toward the boat. Still delayed, so it left plenty of time for everyone’s favorite discussion to pop up: our starting strategy. Specifically the age old tradeoff “Is it better to start at the favored end but get buried in the second or third row, or work farther down the line (or all the way to the pin) and start in clear air.”

More about the second race where we don’t finish DFL after the fold…

Last season we’d consistently try to start near the middle or on what we believed was favored, get into the serious traffic at the favored end (we usually have close to 30 J24′s on a starting line) proceed to get completely knocked off our game by the close quarters sailing and the ease at which we are luffed up to or over the line, dive behind the line into the 3rd row and get an agonizingly slow speed start. Rinse. Repeat. It was going nowhere.

So this season we’ve been safely picking the unfavored end just to start at the line in clear air. Our committee tends to set a pretty even line, so we’ve ended up getting to halfway up the course while the boats buried in dirty air are just finally getting over the start line. Maybe we’re just rationalizing a less stressful start, but it’s been working. I swear.

Of course we intend to work our way back into the mix and learn to get a favored end, clear air, front row, full speed start, but it’s been a while since we dipped our toe back into that. Last night we tried again.

In short: we got sandwiched in tight, had no strategy for defending any room to leeward, got luffed up by Tundra Rose, tried to stay up, flopped over to port, flopped back to starboard, then found ourselves over the line at the start. We heard the starting horn, and the beeping of the countdown timer on our mast, but could probably have seen Mercer Island around the bow of the of the committee boat had we looked.

We found ourselves just upwind off Tundra’s starboard side. Tundra’s tactician yelled for us to cross over them and head back below the line to clear our OCS. They had, of course, defended a healthy lane below them which left us room to cross and head back INTO the teeth of the fleet, but made it safely through a thicket of boats to get back behind the line. Very smart for Tundra to get us (as an OCS boat) out of their clear air. Unfortunately we were only one of many boats to OCS so the committee called a general recall.

So in the space of about 60 seconds leading up to the start we had appeared to thrash about wildly then spin around and head back into the fleet. It was both dramatic and ridiculous. This may be a theme that should land on the list of “alternative boat names tha we didn’t go with”.

There were laughs from other boats, and a few “HEY JUJU, WE ARE COMING ACROSS ON STARBOARD, THAT MEANS WE HAVE RIGHT OF WAY, DON’T FREAK OUT” jokes during the next pre-start. Needless to say we had enough of big fleet starting tactics and limped back out to our pin end territory for the next race.

We worked up to the pin end and got a nice clear start for the first race. Somehow made MANY bad crosses and yet still found ourselves in the mix at the first rounding. We must have been in a very favorable shift most of the way up. No fiascos for the rest of the first race, but we came in last by a few boatlengths.

The second race saw a very nice clear start from the pin end heading toward center of the line. The fleet was heading out towards the pin end for the start so we found ourselves not so alone for our start. We came down the line on port towards the oncoming fleet and were able to pick a lane to tack into between the first and second boats across, and smartly tacked over to starboard. We were sailing fast, in clear air, and ahead of many other boats in the fleet that had been deep in bad air nearer to the boat end of the line. Our first upwind rounding went well, downwind went well, and we tried to take advantage of an opportunity at the leeward rounding (still determining if this was a foul on our part, or a cunning tactic) that allowed us to pass two boats. We held our ground on the way back up to windward. The last downwind run to the finish found all (seriously, ALL, in a tight parade) boats ahead of us staying on the left side of the course on the way to the downwind finish.

We took a chance on breaking with the fleet and opting to stay slightly to the right and in clear air, even if we weren’t on as favorable reach as the rest. It paid off for us. We steered for the boat end of the finish line, made up ground against several boats stalled in the long lineup on the left side, and finished ahead of 4 boats.

Our best finish ever!

(Aside from the time last year when we got T-Boned before the second start, retired to the marina and got to the bar FIRST. I think it’s the first time I haven’t stood in the line for nachos for > 25 minutes.)