and we were all within a few hundred feet of each other at all times... with the exception of M3, who got way behind out near the mark.The race was course 5—out to marker X and back. The winds were strong at the dock but pretty nice overall, around 10-15 knots most of the time with an occasional light spot. The water was flat until
we were well out of the channel, and then we got some light chop in the deepest water.At the start of the race, three or four boats went over the start line right on time, and the others followed. For some reason, M2 started pretty late but seemed to catch up with the rest of the Merits in the channel. It was a beam reach most of the way up the channel, with winds from the west.
I was in M7 with Skipper Viola and
Dave P and Sandi as other crew members. We were neck and neck with M6 most of the way with M1 and M4 just ahead of us. When we got out of the channel, the pack disbursed a bit. We were solidly in third place with M1 and M4 still ahead of us and M6 dropping back. M2 and M3 were pretty far back.We had a couple of GPSs on board and headed directly to the mark. M6 followed suit.
We noticed that M1 and M4 were heading more toward the center span of the bridge and couldn't figure out why. Somehow M2 had caught up with the pack and was following M1 and M4. I found out later that the M2 crew didn't know where the mark was!On our way to the mark, we got a header that forced us to change our course by about 30 degrees to the east. Along with
fighting a strong flood the whole evening, that put us way further east than the boats in the lead.When we got far enough out so the mark was about 130 degrees to our left, we tacked, and it was a good move. With the flood pushing us down, we headed straight for the mark and were able to round it without tacking again. After rounding the mark, we headed down and back to the channel.
On the downwind leg, at first, we were on a deep broad reach, so we used the spinnaker pole to hold the jib out... not wing-and-wing... just a starboard tack. We headed directly for marker 3, but the wind kept shifting, so we had
to keep falling off (away from the marker) to maintain speed.At some point in that downwind leg, M2 came from behind, passed everyone, and took the lead! We were all stumped at how they were doing it. (I later found out that one of the crew members, Peter, had gotten there early and cleaned the bottom of the boat! Ah-ha!)
We turned into the channel and had to tack several times until we got to marker 8, at which point, we were on a close haul for the rest of the race.
Here's the order in which the boats finished:
| Place | Boat | Skipper |
| 1 | M2 | Dave G |
| 2 | M1 | Nico |
| 3 | M4 | Hans |
| 4 | M7 | Viola |
| 5 | M6 | Vadim |
| 6 | M3 | Roy |
Here's a picture of the winning crew, along with the bird's nest they found in their sail!
Great race, Spinnaker folks! Please check out my Picasa web album for more pictures!
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