Beer Can #13 - July 2

This week's beer can race was fairly relaxed and fun for me. I was on the Smokin' J, so I didn't get a lot of stories about the Merit race. I do have the results, though, and a few pictures from where I was sitting.

Place	Boat	Skipper
1	M3	Jeff
2	M4	Viola
3	M1	Dave G
4	M7	Leslie
5	M2	Kimi

It was a balmy early summer evening. The wind was perfect—12-15 kts with gusts maybe hitting 18-20 kts. We had a flood tide with some rollers out in the deeper parts of the bay, but that was good for surfing back.

Stan took the helm for the start of the race and then handed it over to Kerry and shifted into his tactician role. I was on the main for the upwind leg, and Steve Skinner took the jib sheets. Monica was foredeck, so she was basically rail meat on the way out to S, the race marker we were headed for. Monica brought her cousin, Emily, and her student, Brian, who hadn't sailed much and not for a long time. Brian helped Steve on the jib sheets, and Emily pitched in whenever we needed her. Other than that, they rode the rail with Monica.

Kerry steered us through the rollers extremely well on the upwind leg and then rounded the mark perfectly, capturing the inside track and overtaking a Beneteau that was rounding at the same time.

That's when Monica came alive! Up went the spinnaker and down went the jib. Monica noticed that the spin halyard was inside the jib and corrected that quickly just before the hoist. She also loved the special ties I brought her to tie down the jib when it was not in use. Glad that was a hit!

On the downwind leg, Monica trimmed, I handled the guy, and Kerry handled the foreguy and topping lift. It was really nice to have enough crew to handle everything in the pit. So often this spring we've been shorthanded while flying the chute.

No gybes were necessary as we headed for the channel on a broad reach. Stan decided to douse early, around marker 8, I think. The douse went well except for my foot on the guy, but we corrected that quickly. Part way down the channel, a couple of other boats hoisted their chutes again, but Stan decided not to when Monica said she'd be swimming back if he did. All in all, it was a very pleasant evening and a good race. I believe we came in 5th out of about 20 boats.

When we returned to the dock, the Merits were all in. Here's what they look like after a race:Lame, I know... I promise to get all of the crews' pictures next week! Thanks to all who came out for this race!