It wasn’t much, but it
beat sitting on the dock. The forecast
was for calm winds building to a whole 5 mph in the afternoon. And you guessed it, out of the
East/Southeast. With everyone prepping
for the next weekend Memorial Day at the dock only two boats showed up for
racing – ZCat II, a Catalina 22 with Eddie and his dad Frank
Zeiler on board and Bogey , a Hunter
22 with George Boger and John Bomar on board.
It was to be a match race of 22 footers in light, sometimes drifting
conditions.
Patience paid off as
the wind finally came on after a dead calm wait and both boats hung close to
the start line, not wanting to be caught very far away should the winds die
out. Bogey was windward with ZCat a
little further down the line as the time clicked off. With about 30 seconds to the start the wind
veered left, knocking both boats and making it hard to make the start
line. Since she could not tack because
of Bogey’s approach upwind on the line ZCat had to luff up to try and make it
across. Bogey drove down the line and
tacked away with better momentum and lead off the line. Both boats did their best to keep moving
although in the lulls there was hardly enough wind to maintain sail shape. Both boats made a couple tacks working upwind
and on the last starboard tack toward the mark Bogey passed ZCat who had taken
the lead. As they neared the windward
buoy the wind died completely and it was a drifting contest. With no way on Bogey drifted into the buoy
collecting a foul and ZCat rounded outside her.
As it happened, not
long after the rounding a good breeze filled in from the West (of all places)
and Bogey was able to perform her 360 penalty turn with good speed and minimal
time lost. She and ZCat then reached off
with the wind on the beam, ZCat flying her spinnaker. Bogey managed to stay with her most of the
way, only losing ground at the last of the leg as the wind eased. ZCat got line honors but Bogey was able to
correct over her with a margin of victory of only 27 seconds.
It turned into a pretty good race after all and
was fun at the end. Both boats look
forward to the last two races next week-end on Memorial Day which will
determine the spring championship.
In the wise words of Eddie Z: "I believe it is getting time to be in the water not on it."
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