I raced in Canandaigua Yacht Club’s 75th Anniversary History Regatta a few weeks ago, sailing my 2.4 Meter. The race was pretty neat. It took the fleet from the starting line in front of the club, down Canandaigua Lake and around marks that were set in front of all of the old locations of the yacht club in years past.

View while sailing down Canandaigua Lake in my 2.4 Meter during the CYC 75th Anniversary Race.

Before the race, I reviewed the racing instructions. The document stated that we would have a windward start.

The morning of the race, I attended the skipper’s meeting. At the end of the meeting I asked the question about the starting line and if we were doing a typical start to windward. I was told, “Yes” we’ll be starting to windward with the first rounding mark “off of the mooring field in front of the club”.

Once I was out to the course, I watched the marks get set, the RC flags to go up, and then I noticed that most boats were tacking back and forth OCS (on course side) of the line.

I sailed around behind the committee boat, approaching on a starboard tack, hailed the PRO and asked about the starting line and if we were still going to windward at the gun.

“Windward start, round the pin and take a sharp left,” was the reply from the PRO or  ”Principle Race Officer”.

Cool.

With a minute to go to the start, I made my way on down towards the pin on a close starboard reach and waited. With 30 seconds to go, I was STILL the only boat behind the starting line and everyone else was on the course side coming right at me!

I’m not sure how many times I could have asked for clarification and in what other form I needed to check, so when the gun went off, I pinched up to a close-hauled course, crossed the line just after the signal, then reached off a hair and jibed around the pin end of the line, barely missing a couple of larger boats coming towards me in the opposite direction. At that point, I headed on down the lake behind everyone else.

No other boats started the race to windward, in the same direction as I did.

Everyone else reached across the line starting line in the OTHER direction, sailing on down the lake when the gun went off.

The rest of the race was uneventful. I managed to stay in about the middle of the pack of boats, not bad considering I probably have one of the slowest boats on the water and three legs of reaching isn’t my strongest point of sail.

I crossed the finish line between a couple of other cruisers and Ensigns and then decided – just to be safe – that I should round the committee boat and cross the line in the direction I started the race. After the technicalities were taken care of, I headed on in to shore for the after-race awards and party.

When I got to the clubhouse, I questioned the President of the club, who was on the committee boat for the start of the race, about the start. She said, “You were the only person who technically started the race.”

No one else had crossed the start line in the proper direction!

Awards were given out for all of the fleets. I was awarded the first in fleet for the cruisers. Then, surprisingly, my little 2.4 Mr had been calculated to be the first place boat overall – kewl!

Last night, (six weeks after the race) I got a call from the Vice Commodore. He let me know that the results had been disputed and I was being moved to 4th overall after the revision.

How can the only boat that started a race end up in forth place?

The National Yacht Club is hosting the event and sailing is off the shores of Toronto on Lake Ontario.

Today is boat rigging day and tune-up sailing with local Toronto sailors and those of us who shows up early.

I’ll be posting photos and updates in the evenings.

]]> http://www.billblevins.com/2008/06/marc-leblanc-wins-2008-24-meter-nationals/feed/ 0 http://www.billblevins.com/2008/06/us-24-meter-nationals-day-2-3/ http://www.billblevins.com/2008/06/us-24-meter-nationals-day-2-3/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:46:19 +0000 Bill Blevins http://www.billblevins.com/?p=116

We are getting ready to head out into Long Island Sound for the final day of racing at the US 2.4 Meter Nationals at the Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT.

Tracy is going out on one of the coach boats (there are several Olympians here training for China and their coaches ride on the outside of the course analyzing every tactic for discussion with the sailor between races). She’s taking a camera with a long lens, so tonight I’ll post photos. Yesterday was very busy and I totally forgot I packed my little camera and my video camera!

I’m in 12th place now after 7 races, moving up one spot. I got the boat moving nicely in the final race of the day when the winds picked up and held steady for the whole race. I am not moving so fast in the light air compared to everyone else. I’m still working on that one. My goal yesterday was “good starts” and I hit 3 out of the 4 starts in good shape. I’m still going to work on starts today but I think sticking to the side of the course with the leaders may be my “Plan B” today.

The top results shifted since the first day with Mark LeBlanc in first with 18 points, John Ruf in second with 22, Bruce Millar has 23, Paul Tingley has 25 and he is tied with Jerry Wendt and in sixth is Peter Wilson with 26 points.

PhotoBoat.com has posted photos from the 3 races on Day #1. I also posted my photos on Flickr.

Someone should tell Gene Hinkel that rudder pedals are for steering your feet!

Day #1 of the 2008 US 2.4 Meter National Championships is in the books! WHAT FUN!!

Winds were light and shifty. I mean, very shifty! One race took us upwind towards the yacht club and for the next race we headed up Long Island Sound towards New York City. The race committee did a great job.

Our first race was canceled due to a severe wind shift – so severe that I was in the back of the pack one minute and next to the mark in front of almost all of the boats the next! The race committee did the right thing and canceled that attempt and called it a “practice start”.

I finished 6th in the “real” first race. Straightforward race and I sailed pretty well. I caught a nice lift heading upwind near the left middle of the course on the second windward leg and sailed in front of a number of boats.

Races 2 and 3 weren’t so good for me.

I chose to avoid a port-tack boat at the start and I didn’t protest, instead, tacked away and jibed all the way around then got off the line several boat lengths behind the whole fleet in bad air. I did catch up for a bit, making the second boat to round the second windward mark, but my tactics fell apart on the final downwind leg and I finished in 15th.

Race 3, I tried to squeeze in on the RC end of the line and got taken up and over the line early and had to re-round the boat end. I never recovered from that one and ended up 16th.

Overall, I’m in 13th place after 3 races.

Tomorrow, I’ll work on my starts!

I’ve met lots of really nice and helpful people. Having a great time. Tracy is here, sick, but doing better.

More to report tomorrow and many more photos that I’ll post after I get home.

The low point leaders after the first day are John Ruf (7 points), Jerry Wendt (15), Burce Millar (15) and Peter Wilson (15) and Mark LeBlanc (16).

The winds were extremely light and there were only a few boats out. I earned both “guns” and after the results were computed, managed to get two first place finishes. The corrected results are posted on the Canandaigua Yacht Club “GO” Fleet site.

A Beneteau 210 gave me stiff sailing competition and actually cut me a few breaks in the first race which were much appreciated, especially not taking me up at the finish line at the end of the first race and pinching me above the pin!

The finish line for the short triangle is directly lined up with the reach mark so if boats are overlapped coming from that mark to the pin end of the line, I could definitely see problems!

The second race was shortened to a two-leg windward leeward course. I rounded the upwind mark behind the first boat, but loosened up the whole rig and ran down underneath him on the downhill leg which by that point had turned in to a very light broad reach. I worked my way to the windward side after getting clear ahead, continuing on to pull out a 90 second lead at the finish line.

Winds were so light by that point that the “crash boat” gave me a much appreciated tow back to the docks.