Racing

I took Fearless out for the beer can race on May 30, 2003. That was our first race, and my first time out with inexperienced crew (mostly, I'd been sailing with people I've crewed for on their boats). The first mark rounding was a bit of a disaster, but there was no actual contact either with other boats or with the mark, and there were still some boats behind us at the end (the beer can races are reverse handicap, so the slower boats start first and at the finish, what you see is what you get). Did several more after that. This one was a DNF--the weather got worse. Got towed in for too little wind the following week.

Baby's first regatta (with me, anyway) was the Centerboard Regatta at AYC June 21-22. We performed consistently, scoring 5 DFLs in 5 races. We did achieve my personal goals of crossing the starting line before the next fleet and keeping the mast out of the lake, and the injuries were minor (though I do have one scar).

First series race was on July 12, since the first race of the series was cancelled due to lack of wind and the second weekend I had a fencing tournament. The series went better than the regatta--we came in second to last in several races and were third overall (ahead of a bunch of folks who only did a couple of races). We got a DNF in the last race, though, and I learned that Fearless is quite a stable little boat either side up. Had a bad jibing experience. Boat and crew are fine, with a lot of help from the race committee.

Third regatta was Fall Regatta, October 4-5. Saturday provided our first distance races (although the wind was light for the first race and they shortened course--it was only about four miles). The second race included our first successful use of the spinnaker in a race, although we took it down when we got into heavy traffic at a mark rounding, to reduce the number of things that could go wrong. That race went pretty well, with a second-place finish (corrected time--and we were only five seconds behind the JY-15 boat to boat). Sunday's round-the-buoys race was less successful, but we wound up with a third-place finish overall.