First beer can of the season!

After Mike saw my sailing blog, he asked me if I want to blog the racing season for Spinnaker this year. So here I am with a Spinnaker-sponsored blog that's dedicated to racing, and this is my first post of the year.

April 9, 2008 was the first beer can race out of Redwood City this season. I've really missed this event and had a great time.

Sandi and I crewed for Dave P for the first time, along with a guy named Carl that none of us knew before. The wind was strong, so we reefed as we raised the main. We got a great start with Dave's timing technique, and watched as Kerry's boat crossed the starting line just ahead of us. We followed Kerry around the course and were right behind him the whole way.

Soon after we got out to the bay, we shook out the reef and did the rest of the race full tilt. The wind was still pretty strong but not enough to reef again. After we rounded marker S, we were basically on a beam reach and were glad to have all the sail we could get.

On the way back down the channel, Dave noticed that one of Kerry's crew members was hanging out over the lifeline, which is against the rules. I never knew that and could see how this guy probably didn't even realize he was doing it. He was standing straight up by the shrouds. The only problem was that the boat was heeling at about a 30-degree angle, so most of his body ended up outside the lifelines... not just for a brief moment... for about the last half hour of the race!

I am not good at drawing, and no one should ever let me draw anything serious. But for lack of a better option, here's my lame attempt at illustrating the point.



So Kerry's boat was disqualified, and even though we came in second, we took first prize for the Merits. It's always fun to get out there, no matter who wins!

Please check out my other sailing blog, too!