Yesterday was the start of the SYSCO Summer Series and the crew of "NiSe" looked great, albeit typical confusion on the course was abundant. Leading up to the race we had the new shirts delivered (THANKS LINDA!!) so the entire crew was dressed in black: the boat name boldly displayed in white block letters across the back. Wanting to make the start perfect, I purchased an iPhone apps custom made for counting down sailboat racing starts. I spent the night before programming the app and understanding the full functionality. I was ready to be first across the line. The crew was set to Michelle, Cheryl, "fingers" Rhodes, and his son "boom buns".
We motored out to the committee boat, to be recorded and read the course number. A simple start, round #1, round #3 and finish was the course. As we were putting our sails up, who should appear but the arch rivals from the week before, "Vagrant". They pulled along side and we chatted and joked about the course and the race before. With sails up the two boats took runs back and forth across the river like to wild stallions running side by side sizing each other up. "NiSe" despite only having Dacron sails, was a wee bit faster on the reach, out paced "Vagrant" with her golden Kevlar sails. Confident that I had the better crew, I was ready for the start.
We held the boat in place near the committee boat waiting for the start at 6:30PM. Precisely as the iPhone struck 6:30, the first blast went off on the committee boat, and I started the timer app. We were the third fleet to start, as I watched each of the first two count downs tick past; the horn signal perfectly timed to the apps countdown. Our start came and we counted down, 1 minute to start, 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, and we headed for the line. In my mind I knew we had nailed the start, like an America's Cup crew. But as the timer ticked to "0" and we crossed the start there was no horn from the committee boat. Looking over to the boat, I saw the white flag with a blue cross, meaning a call back of some boats from the previous start. That flag explained why I was fighting these little Range 20's going the wrong direction as we started.
We turned the boat back around looping back past the starting line, getting onto starboard tack we placed ourselves once again in the path of "Upstart". "What are you doing?" their skipper yelled. "starting" was the only reply I had. With the confusion, we didn't fair too badly in the start, only 3/4 of the way back in the pack as we progressed to the mark. Being in the back of the pack gave us a nice view of the rest of the fleet as they peeled off one by one to port-tack and head for the mark. We decided to gamble and play the Columbia River's might current to our favor and tack early. If we were wrong we wouldn't be aligned with the mark and have to tack again, if we were right we could gain everything lost and beat the fleet to the inside of the mark. As most of you know I am a risk taker, and sometimes it pays off big, this time it did. We rounded the mark on the inside pushing the rest of the fleet outward to our position pushing to 3rd place, 1st among our class of boats.
Going downwind, the command was give to play the stereo loud to psych out the other crews, and it worked too. The Pogues' song, "Stream of Whiskey" boomed from the rear speakers as we gained on our competition. The boat soon slowed, as "Vagrant" moved right behind us stealing our wind. It wasn't long before the other two Catalina 30's were behind her as well pulling us almost to a complete stop. "Vagrant" passed us but we were able to shake off the other two as we gained again on "Vagrant"'s position.
At this point in the race is where young Taylor Rhodes, (finger's son) earns his name. Taylor being the youngest and lightest on the crew at 17y/o was sent to hold the boom back from an accidental jibe by sitting on the boom near the mast. Spouting that he had yet to earn a nickname was thusly timed with his place on the boom; hence"boom buns" was coined.
Bearing down on the mark for the final leg produced more confusion as the race committee boat had dropped a second mark behind the other downwind mark. Which mark should we go with? As a crew we decided on the further one because some of the boats rounded that mark. Being right behind "Vagrant" I watched as they rounded the first and headed back. Not wanting to be beat by them, your skipper made the command decision to round the first mark and make way to the finish. We crossed the line 22 seconds behind "Vagrant", unofficially second in our class of boats. Official results come out Saturday on (www.sailpdx.org), then we will know if we did it right.
We pulled down the sails and motored back to the marina. Michelle asked, "Why don't we sail back?" Looking around at the fleet of boats still racing and having yet to finish my retort was simple, "no reason to show off now." The crew, save young "boom buns", enjoyed a Guinness as we put "NiSe" to bed and locked up. Next week is race two in the series so stay tuned.
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