HR1, 2013

Finally some breeze.  Our light air losing streak has finally been broken.  The morning brought a strong Westerly wind of about 10-15 knots with puffs to 20 perhaps, and cloudy skies but no rain.  After resetting the marks the course was posted, and it was going to be an interesting one indeed.  The RC posted CAPFAEC.  There was going to be lots of reaching and a lot of high angle sailing with the kite up.  It was a drag race start with the obvious bunching up at the pin.  We decided to concentrate on a clear air start and focus on our time and distance to the line.  We had an awesome lane about midline with nobody to leeward and we were bow out on the Martin 242 to windward.  With clear air and a boat speed advantage we took off and hit the A mark clear ahead of the fleet.  This is where the challenge of sailing an A sail boat gets interesting in the Okanagan.  The boats just are not set up for a gybeset, and the choice of doing a bear away set in these conditions is not an option due to the terrible sailing angle along the course it would involve.  We gybed around the A mark and jib reached up high closer to the Western shore before setting the kite.  To many times we have been caught with the kite up while getting blown closer to the shallow water North of Sutherland Bay and this time we were determined to give ourselves enough room to lay the P mark without risking a high wind/high angle douse.  It worked quite well and we hit the P mark with a considerable lead.  The leg to F mark was the only true beat of the entire race.  We had a hard time keeping the boat balanced with only half of the true one design weight on the rail.  We played a little defense first covering J and then GR on the beat.  We sailed abeam F just ahead of GR.  They had good speed on us for the leg to A but I kept them firmly in our sites and held a leebow position with the intention of pushing them right up to the layline if required.  We held them off and once again rounded A mark just ahead of GR and J but the lead had all but vanished.  Now came the question of whether to jib reach all the way down to F on a ruhm line course or go for speed with the kite and hope to avoid being blown too far downrange.  We decided fast was to our liking and hoisted the kite.  It was an awesome ride living right on the edge of wipeout the whole way down.  We hit speeds of 13.1kts and had an extraordinary broach recovery to our credit.  We made substantial gains but it was now time to consolidate with a kite drop and beat back up to the mark and hope the tactic didn't cost us dearly.  As we rounded E mark it was clear it had worked.  We put a few minutes between us and the fleet and after an uneventful reach back to C crossed well out in front.  J then GR finished both just within 3 minutes of our time with J then us then GR correcting out in the top 3 spots.  What a blast it was sailing fast and it sure beats the hell out of floating backwards for hours.  Next week.....