MIAMI-TO-KEY LARGO RACE
20 APR
0001
hrs: Secured as before.
0638
hrs: Start engine.
0643
hrs: Underway. Onboard: Joe,
Patty, John Nichols, Eddie Gross, Danny Rodriguez,
John Wallace, Trevor Gaffney.
Set Main in Crandon Basin.
Proceeding toward FlG“71” South of
Rickenbacker Causeway to Start the Miami-
to-Key Largo Race. Set #1 off Crandon Channel
FlG “5”.
Winds E / 10 - 12 kts. Skies are sunny with
scattered clouds and temperatures will
eventually rise to the low 80’s.
0708
hrs: Stop engine.
Douse
#1. Set Chute and gybe and douse for practice.
Set #1 for start of race. The crew
assignments are generally as follows: Trevor –
helm, Joe – mainsheet, John Wallace &
John Nichols – foredeck & Chute trim,
Eddie Gross – navigator & Chute pole
controls, Danny Rodriguez – Chute guy,
Patty – all cabin functions (especially
hardware and fitting retrieval) and other
assistance on deck where required.
0800
hrs: Start of the race. A poor
one as a result of Joe allowing us to get too far from the
line which costs us approximately 30 seconds
to another a near-rated boat in our
class (HAPPY APPLE) – 30 seconds which we
will wish that we could get back
later in the race.
Sail
generally toward West Featherbed passage as allowed by racing fleet
congestion and the requirement to maneuver
for clear air. We are making speeds
in the upper 5’s and occasionally in the
lower 6’s. Joe delays the decision
to set the Chute with the result that another
boat which was the first in our class to
set (EXTREME), acquires a considerable lead
which only their later mistakes can
help to partially offset.
0845
hrs: Douse #1. Set Chute.
Sail
generally on rhumbline to West Featherbed Passage on port tack with
apparent wind from 075 to 100 degrees.
As progress is made South the fleet “thins
out” and we are less frequently tasked
with the requirement to make costly
deviations from the rhumbline course in
order to avoid bigger and slower boats.
Thanks in large part to great work on the
helm and great Chute trimming we pass several
boats that had made a better start
than ours. The Chute set has increased our
SOG and VMG by ½ to ¾ kt – making
the delay in the decision to set ever more
galling to contemplate. We are now
making speeds in the lower to upper 6’s and
we will see occasional 7’s in the
lower portion of the Bay as the whole crew becomes “locked on” to
“dinghy
style” constant Chute-and-Main sheet trim and
the maintenance of the critical
required angle-of-heel by the shifting of
body weight in order to minimize the
braking effect of rudder inputs.
A lot of things are happening as Eddie keeps
us continually apprised of our
progress toward the passages we must
negotiate, our position in our nine-boat
class and the results of our efforts to keep
who we think are the leaders from
getting “out of reach”. The competitive focus
of the whole crew is intensified and
maintained as we come to understand that his
inputs are keeping us from sailing
the wasted distance that most of the fleet
seems to be sailing as they make
considerable easting (left side of course)
off the rhumblines before and after the
West Featherbed Passage. Additionally, it
becomes apparent that our “helm” is
fast and that our Chute trimmers’ constant
movement through the “trim-and-ease”
loop is paying off big in terms of boat
speed. From approximately one mile after
the start to the North entrance of Card Bank
Passage we are not passed by a single
boat and when we are at the southern end of
the Cutter Bank passage we notice
EXTREME, whom we have been sailing close to
on corrected time, went
aground approaching Card Bank passage and
spent some minutes freeing
herself.
We are passed by HAPPY APPLE, at the entrance
to Card Bank Passage. They
have manifestly better boat speed with their masthead
rig and they are sailing it
well. It appears that we owe our present
reasonable standing against them to
having sailed along rhumblines as much as
possible and having not honored
Cutter Bank FLR 2.5Sec“8” to starboard as the
rest of the fleet did but, instead,
having “cut” it approximately ½ NM to the
West (keeping it that far to port) and
“saving” some good distance sailed. We are
also skunked by a bunch of wind
shadows from other longer-waterlined boats
and cruising catamarans and, as is the
case when being passed, we feel uniquely
beset by a case of “bad luck”.
However, at the entrance to Barnes Sound we
again begin to feel the kind of puffy
breeze that offsets the advantages of HAPPY
APPLE’s masthead rig and allows
our fractional rig to keep us flat and fast
while other boats must frequently dump
the driving power of their Mains – conditions
akin to what we experienced in the
Northern portion of the Bay. As we have been
doing for the entire race, the whole
crew sweats and strains and hopes to coax
every fraction of a knot of boat speed
out of the boat for the last four miles and
at the finish line we are not sure of any
result other than we have finished within
fifteen seconds of HAPPY APPLE’s
corrected time – and not knowing who beat
whom.
After the finish we fall off, douse the
Chute, gybe the Main, harden up to a
starboard close reach, set the #1 and begin
the return trip home with great boat
speed, and fine camaraderie. Beers are broken
out, future races are fantasized
about, todays high points are lied about,
errors are forgotten about and we are
pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of boats
in our class and in the fleet whom we
have beaten still sailing South.
1448
hrs: Southern entrance to Card
Sound Bridge channel. Start engine. Douse #1.
Motorsail
to windward with the traveler cranked up to the high side most of the
time.
1651
hrs: Cutter Bank FLR 2.5Sec“8”.
Stop engine. Set #1. Sail to windward – beating or
very close reaching on starboard tack.
2006
hrs: Crandon Channel G“7”.
Start engine. Douse #1. Douse Main.
2002
hrs: Secured CRW. Stop
engine. GPS Trip = 536 NM
1.
What a great
day!!! – “Chamber-of-Commerce” conditions.
2.
Primo
camaraderie at the end of it all.
3.
As a Post
Script: we finished 89th boat across the line, 9th
monohull across the line, 6th monohull (out of 35) on corrected
time, FIRST in PHRF 2 on corrected time – beating HAPPY APPLE by
6 seconds (the closest difference between any monohulls) and beating EXTREME by
five minutes (the grounding killed their chances). And all I really wanted was
to avoid some kind of collision at the start and for the crew to have some
reasonable fun.
2.8
Engine Hrs.