Sunday Nov. 3 Race
by Martin Herbert aboard the Kay D
Sunday November third and a Club race (originally scheduled to be the Jack Langdon Trophy, but turned out to be too little wind).
I set out early to scrub the bottom of the Kay D. As I crested the hill into Ganges I saw all the anchored boats showing a north wind but, as I arrived at the Club, it was a SE breeze. After some serious scrubbing I looked up to no wind at all. We meandered down to the meeting on F dock. While there was still no wind to be seen or felt, all the Club boat wind indicators suggested a feeble breath coming from town. I suggested heading for a sloop anchored off Grace Islet and a run to the finish line, about a 2 hour race in the conditions at the time. Paul amended this idea with the caveat that if one boat got home before 45 minutes, we would continue through the start line and round Ganges Shoal to port, and come home to the finish. Out we went.
There were some pre-race puffs, but at two minutes to go the wind shut off completely. I had just skulled the Kay D around onto starboard tack and was ghosting to the correct side of the line, about one boat length away, when I was confronted with the whole fleet stopped dead and at all angles. Ogopogo had been running the line on port and stopped dead on heading up to cross the line. Despite having been on a theoretical starboard tack for almost two minutes, I found myself in the odd position of not giving the port boat time to keep clear. I took Ogopogo’s stern for the next two minutes, then went hunting for wind to the right.
Wrong. I rounded the sloop much later ,jockeying for last place with another blue Flying Fifteen, while two more of them were well ahead of us. The wind was filling in from the SE, Ogopogo and Slippery When Wet had jumped ahead and Steller J was just on our lee bow. I was hiked over the side now and the full race was on.
The lead big boats slipped away and Steller J was showing us her heels as she does when close-hauled. I ground down the FF and closed in on Robyn Hood, needing to find a wind shift to get by them. Heading into Boulder Bay, they closed right back up on me. The wind was dying and the bigger boats, already on the way home, were becoming dots on the horizon.
Once around Ganges Shoal it was up-spinnakers and a close battle home. It was a broad reach to the finish, but in the lulls you needed to heat up the angle to keep the spinnaker full. Once it collapsed you would have a hard time getting it flying again, so it was full-on concentration. I must have adjusted the pole height about 15 times, going from perfect height on the gusts to the height that would keep it filling and not collapse under its own weight on the lulls. Line honours for Flying Fifteens would be decided by who got the next puff. We saw it touch down on the water, gybed and intercepted it. One last zephyr brought the Kay D home at 12.46.50
Club Handicap Results
| Club | Finish | Corrected | Rating for | club | |||
| Rating | Boat | Skipper | Time | Time | Place | Next Race | points |
| 93 | SLIPPERY WHEN WET | Gang of 5 | 12:05:37 | 01:41:23 | 1 | 87 | 100 |
| 23 | OGOPOGO | Faget | 11:56:04 | 01:43:02 | 2 | 20 | 86 |
| 129 | STELLER J | Leitch | 12:23:33 | 01:53:43 | 3 | 132 | 72 |
| 205 | ROBYN HOOD | Oakes | 12:50:45 | 02:06:11 | 4 | 205 | 57 |
| 170 | KAY D | Herbert | 12:46:50 | 02:08:54 | 5 | 176 | 43 |
| 205 | FIRE FOX | N. Cognito | 13:13:15 | 02:26:22 | 6 | 205 | 28 |
| 205 | BLUEBIRD | Mr Ree | 13:24:15 | 02:36:13 | 7 | 205 | 14 |
PHRFBC Results
| PHRFBC | Finish | Corrected | |||
| Rating | Boat | Skipper | Time | Time | Place |
| 99 | OGOPOGO | Faget | 11:56:04 | 01:30:23 | 1 |
| 126 | SLIPPERY WHEN WET | Gang of 5 | 12:05:37 | 01:36:13 | 2 |
| 144 | STELLER J | Leitch | 12:23:33 | 01:51:09 | 3 |
| 205 | KAY D | Herbert | 12:46:50 | 02:02:41 | 4 |
| 205 | ROBYN HOOD | Oakes | 12:50:45 | 02:06:11 | 5 |
| 205 | FIRE FOX | N. Cognito | 13:13:15 | 02:26:22 | 6 |
| 205 | BLUEBIRD | Mr Ree | 13:24:15 | 02:36:13 | 7 |
