Frostbite 2009

The WINSA frostbite series was as advertised, cold and wet for the most part. We had such strong winds the first week that racing was cancelled. The second week we managed to get two races completed in heavy winds. Stuart, Charles, and I braved the nasty weather and sailed well considering the adverse conditions. We took a fifth in the first race due to equipment issues. The line we used to reef the main was too large and the reef started to come out halfway through the race. We then lost a ring ding out of a pin in our mainsheet and the boom took off flying with the sail. If Stuart wouldn't have been on board I don't know how we would have got her back together. As Stuart muscled the block back into the boat, I steered head to wind, and Charles put the pin back in place with the ring ding. After the race we took the reef out of the sail as the winds began to weaken. We determined that we were slightly underpowered in the first race, so a change was necessary. In the second race we had a great downwind leg with the boat topping 6.3 knots. We ended up with a really close second place.

The third week of racing had its ups and downs. We got out of the marina late and by the time we got to the starting line all the other boats were at least 100 yards down the course. We gave it all we had and finished fifth. The second race went our way as we captured our first bullet. We played the wind shift at the windward mark perfectly and managed to beat the fleet. The third race went much like the first. We were late for the start and got caught in the dirty air of the larger cruising boats and ended up in fourth place. The highlight of week three was a group of gray whales off from Snakelum Point. The first whales I have seen in the wild and they were massive. Hard to race when you're watching for whales, but very exciting to see!

We had a full boat of six hands on deck for the final week of the series. The crew of Stuart, Matt, Jordan, Charles, Emily and myself were met with cold and rain. We ended the series with three races and finished them by taking two fourths and a fifth. Our overall standing for the series was fourth place, just outside of getting some hardware. A member of the race committee, Charles Gordanier, shot some video footage that he shared with the world on YouTube. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azDZVY3tqAw