First Solo Race

On Sat August 29 I raced solo for the first time ever. The race was the MS/burton cup, which is one of the longer races. The course goes around big island, but also loops into 3 of the bays. The winds looked very light and I was not sure if we would race with 2-3 knots of wind. I talked to the crew and we decided they would not drive all of the way out and maybe not race. My plan was to work on the boat with some new rigging if the race was called. In the end they did have the race.  Three of the racing clubs on the lake took part in the cup. There was a lot of boats out there even with the light wind.  I got a good start ahead of a number of boats, slowly some pulled away from me, and by the first leg there was a group of 4 of us. I was starting to pull ahead two of them. By the second leg, I was losing ground on one boat. On the last leg, 2 of the boats bailed. Leaving myself and Seeker and, despite having a good lead, Seeker slowly started to catch me. At a few points the wind dropped to 0.0 knots and the boat stopped moving. With the power boat chop and no wind I wanted to quit. A few times the boom jibed from the power boat chop. About this time the race committee was telling us we had 1 hour left in the 5 hour time limit. It looked like it would be close.

As we got close to the finish line Seeker pulled a head of me. As we finished, Seeker was 6 sec ahead of me and our boats were overlapped.  This is after 4 hours 47 min 11sec grrr. We did have an extra 12 plus min. to finish. That part was fun.

I was really tired as I headed back the club.  I docked the boat and got everything ship shape and put away. When I pushed the boat off the dock to go to the mooring ball, I heard a pop, and hyper extended my good knee. I knew it was not good. It has been sore past few weeks.  I plan to see the Dr on Monday. My guess is I will miss a few days work.

I had planned on sailing in the PHRF rumble in the bay as well as the C series race the next day, but can't get on and off the boat, let alone get out to the the mooring ball.