Corsica River 2009

Absolutely perfect conditions prevailed for the 2009 Corsica River Yacht Club Annual sailed July 25^th. With a southerly breeze of 13 to 16k with bigger puffs and only 10 degree shifts the stage was set for a fine regatta for the five Penguins who made the trip to Conquest Beach.

When Derek Fernon, singlehanding in his first Penguin regatta in many years in brother Scott Williamson’s Powder Monkey saw that the line was heavily pin favored he wisely attempted to help the race committee by moving the pin. Unfortunately he timed this with the firing of the starting gun and equally unfortunately shifted the pin to windward rather than leeward. Perhaps as a reward for hooking the pin with his rudder (more likely he planned this as an excuse) Derek’s clew shackle let go and he was DNF for that race.

The race committee accepted this pin placement as good advice and left the pin in place for the remainder of the series. The wind remained steady. 235 to 245 on port and was gradually persistent as we sailed up the course.

The sailing instructions were clear regarding the marks at the top of the course. The weather mark, offset and finish line pin were all tetrahedrons. Small tetrahedrons as it happened. Well placed, as they were in race one this did not present a problem. Sadly, some large puffs in race two caused some dragging and some of us (me especially) had difficulty picking out the correct mark. A mark boat picked up one of the marks as we were rounding and announced that there was no offset. I was still unsure about the location of the weather mark. Charlie Krafft, Scott Williamson with Aubrey Barringer and Derek were smarter and didn’t overstand.

After we finished the Race Committee announced it would throw out race 2 and give us a fourth race to allow three races for the day.

Race three was more exciting. Much more exciting for Pucky Lippincott, who wasn’t even there. When Del Walter and I, in second place, sailed into a big, surprise header I cleverly executed a perfect Puckup to avoid flipping. That’s my story (see the January 2009 Spinsheet for a definition). Actually Del saved the day for us by keeping the boat upright and dragging me back aboard. I cleverly almost did this in secret. Charlie didn’t know what happened until the regatta was over. Scott and Aubrey Barringer were happy to take over second place and report on the first demonstration of this maneuver since Pucky gave it its name.

There was more excitement in the middle of the course. Martin and Douglas Krafft, sailing one of the large fleet of Penguins maintained at Krafft Yacht Centre discovered that Penguins make great bathtubs if you keep them upright when they fill with water.

With three boats left in the last race Charlie did to us what we had done to him in race one. Although he was directly behind Del and me he was somehow lifted inside on the long port tack to the finish line with more positive results – for Charlie and Donna.  We tacked, couldn’t cross and lost. I suspect the line boat moved a little to the left. In the earlier races there was some starboard. Probably about 10%. In the first race we had lifted inside Charlie but lost by half a length at the line.

In regattas like this you usually only get one chance to get ahead and one chance to lose as well.  It’s easy to become frustrated and make a bad decision. Charlie and Donna made good ones all day and sailed a perfect regatta in a boat (Wooden Bucket) which isn’t reputed to be fast in the big breeze. They had great speed and sailed smart.

In contrast in the second race Scott Williamson, who is usually an exceptionally smart sailor, jibed away  on the long starboard broad reach to the leeward mark and sailed plenty of extra distance. Strictly a frustration jibe. There was little anyone could do but line up and stay upright. When the course isn’t square there isn’t much choice or much opportunity.

After the regatta the PRO decided to count race 2 after all and allow a throw out. This despite the SI stipulating that there would be a throw out with 6 or more races.

I guess you gotta love it. It was a beautiful day on the water.

Paul Hull