Thursday Night J/24 Racing on Narragansett Bay

Last night myself and my women's crew set out for Thursday night racing. It was a beautiful night on Narragansett Bay winds SSW at 8-10 knots, and a perfect 65-70 degrees and sunshine. Our goal for the evening was to put all of our practice to the test in a real racing situation, and we sailed to the challenge.

The first race we started at the pin end of the line and owned our lane as long as we wanted it. The tide was coming in so we knew we had to play the left side of the shore that hugs Ft. Adams to get some current relief, all was going well at this point we were in about 5 or 6th out of 25. The rest of the race went pretty well. One of the lessons my crew learned was the they need to be a bit more decisive and commit to a decision.

The second race started very quickly after the first. The race committee had chosen a different windward mark which was far to the right side. We decided to head right as a result. At the start we were a casualty of circumstance. One boat in particular decided they could attempt to reach across the line and really messed up our start. We bailed out immediately and headed to the right. With good boat speed and tacking on the shifts we found ourselves in 3rd or 4th coming into the layline. At this point the tide was ripping and we failed to make the mark 2 times and had to jibe out (grrr.) this was not good. We finally rounded the mark in about 12th or so. However we kept it together and passed a few boats downwind and on the last beat. All in all it was a great night of sailing. We are really looking forward to the regatta next week.