The boat is in the water. Spent the past week (90 degree days) burning the candles at both ends getting it ready. Worked days Saturday, Sunday & Monday. Sunday, I towed the boat with me to work in Norwich (half-way to the shore), went down in the evening after work, met a Bob & Brian, launched it and got the mast up. Accomplished some more on Monday night and a bit before going to work Tuesday evening. Tuesday, we had an aviation staff meeting at 1600, then a program wide meeting from 1800 to 2100. At 2215, we took a burn patient from Hartford Hospital to Bridgeport and got back a bit after midnight. I had just lain down, when we got request for child from Stamford Hospital to Yale in New Haven. A 1000′ ish scattered layer was developing on the approach to Yale. By the time we were ready to head back to Hartford, it had thickened up so we ended up returning by taxi, and left it up to the day shift to retrieve the aircraft mid-morning. I took a nap from 0730 to 1130 before going down to get the boat presentable for our first sail and race. Seth showed up a bit early and Bob & Brian a few minutes later.
It was an unusually cool evening of sixty degrees with winds SE at 10 to 12 kts at the beginning of the ebb. The start area was just west and clear of Horseshoe. The course was two laps out to Intrepid Rock and back, total distance 4.3 nm. We had sailed down past the pin end and did not hear the initial warning signal, so never got squared away properly on the countdown for the start. We started in clear air less than a quarter of the way down the line on starboard with most of the fleet crossing near the pin. A pin end start would have put us farther up course to the windward mark, yet would have been far more crowded. Continuing on starboard, we followed closely behind Get Fuzzy (Catalina 27) halfway to Groton Long Point then tacked along with them out to mid channel where we tacked back to starboard to lay Intrepid with a good set. A jibe to port (halfway to GLP) carried us in to the leeward mark.
We went for a leeward douse (smoothly done by the crew) as the run had turned broad, but lost some distance to windward at the rounding as I was slow getting the main in. With a good call by the crew, we again laid the mark a good distance out in mid-channel. This time we jibed to port shortly after the set and with the exception of Second Draft (Catalina 30) were able to remain in clear air all the way to the finish. Plus we benefited from a good 30-second ride in Second Draft?s stern wave. Nearing the finish we had a smooth jibe back to starboard to cross at the pin.
We were certainly a bit rusty (me especially), yet ended up with a 4th out of 8 boats.
Link to Chart