The same Berkeley Circle waters that have chased many away over the years with their relentless chop and 20-25 knot ‘slot’ conditions, showed us their most pleasant conditions I can ever remember short of winter easterlies. Despite the panic on the news of 40mph winds!!!, we sailed in modest westerlies the whole time, #1 conditions.
Sixteen Moores showed up for the SFYC Elite fleet regatta. And while we love sailing around Knox, SFYC is really proud (and rightfully so) of their race management, and they know that Knox is usually a one-sided course. The circle it is!
I’m recovering from arthroscopic wrist surgery, and Joel is on meds for something similar. We were joking about being a bunch of invalids and decided an e-tape-Red-Cross would fit nicely on the transom to acknowledge our conditions.
I haven’t really sailed with this Firefly crew before. It’s kinda shocking. Noah on foredeck can read pressure incredibly well, and pre-empts all the things that would have turned into bigger problems on many other boats. Zero errors. His Milwaukee-glove covered fingertips stick to that kite during a douse and scoop it in faster than anything I’ve seen.
And Rob, who has really taken to coaching now that he has daughters racing in Teras and 420’s is a joy to listen to deliver tactics on the boat. He’s also given me have a newfound appreciation for pit. Even easing the vang before the bearaway at the mark. It’s not that breezy, it’s just good practice. Every sheet and control line position is marked. I can be horribly forgetful in pit… respect.
Joel is rock steady, and manages the mental part of the game exceptionally well. Zero voices being raised on this boat. Even with my best intentions, the urgency with which I’ll call for help on the lazy sheet during a tack is quashed. Just silence.
I also find myself at home with the folks that are on the same page in terms of response time to requests, understanding priority (if you’re doing something less important, pause it, do the thing that was requested, then get back to it), and just generally in the game to the same degree that I am.
Apparently the headsails did not find themselves at home with me, and we tore both the #2 and #1 on the spreaders due to my backwinding. Who’d have known that spreader design varied so much in the fleet? Firefly’s spreaders have pretty square tips, covered in millionaire’s tape. But still pretty square nonetheless, and can punch its way right through 3Di if backwinded excessively. Thanks to Daniel Roberts @ Quantum and Steve McCarthy @ Doyle (Steve is now Doyle SF!) for bailing us out!
The SFYC party, as always, delivered. The Ferrari-sponsored event had us checking our appearance in the restroom mirrors, to make sure we looked somewhat civilized.
The racing on Saturday had been pretty rad. We took a second to Paramour in the first race, who got a great start, and never looked back. The breeze was shockingly consistent, with only about +/- 10 degree shifts. Line nice and square, proper. We maintained the same starting strategy all weekend. We got consistently reasonable starts, sailed clean, every maneuver executed perfectly.
Day 2 is where things got serious. Despite all of the Vakaros tech and Joel’s mastery of it, somehow 33 started below us and like a boat length ahead, with speed. We all assumed they were over early, but nope. And Joel had spent some time with Sam talking about rig tune - they could point! Regretting that right now as we sit in their s***! :).
The tactics on board were the same, but we struggled a bit. We had shifted down to the #2 in fear of the wind building, which it threatened to just before the start. #2 was the wrong call, and we ended up peeling to a #1 on the first downwind leg.
Mooretician came out of right field leading the pack. Yay! Love that crew! We rounded the last windward mark behind them and in front of Paramour. Confident all we needed was a third place to hold our overall rank in the regatta, we stopped fighting and let Paramour jibe to left and jump us. Turns out there was more pressure over there and we almost lost another spot to 33.
We were ready to bust out the beers to celebrate when we did the math with throwouts, and realized that if Paramour were to win the next race (fairly likely!), and we placed any worse than second, we would have the exact same individual race scores 1, 1,2, 2, and they would win the tiebreaker from winning the last race. Joel’s tone instantly turned serious. We all tried to not allow our nerves to get rattled and focus on getting a good start.
We did. I borrowed some starting practices from sailing with Steve Bourdow, regulating power and speed in conjunction with Joel’s driving. It felt as though I was both driving and trimming. Except I wasn’t. We’re not fully fully in synch yet without dialogue - getting there - but it’s a beautiful thing when you are.
Joel held a really nice lane with room below for acceleration. We accelerated on a reach 6 meters below the line, and turned up with about two seconds to go (I’m taking notes). Boom.
We pulled out all the stops: Inboard leads, outboard leads, three lead height positions as the wind strengthened to near the top of #1 conditions. As we approached the final upwind leg we got into a tacking duel with Paramour. I literally felt like I was armwrestling John Kernot, who was trimming on Paramour - and secretly thinking I don’t stand a chance. We bailed on the tacking duel for a while, and got back into it right before the finish.
Mooretician finished ahead of us, for their second bullet of the day, which sealed the deal for Firefly in the overall standings, but that was FAR from certain. Paramour just below us and Safety Third just below them - it was a beautiful sight with the three of us lined up charging towards the finish line - we all crossed just about overlapped within seconds of Mooretician.
Some very, very close racing, and some of the most memorable times on Firefly that the crew recalls.
Firefly gang with Karl’s Saturday night ‘portrait’ present by iPhone
The Fennel family on Paramour
Monday morning hurt
Oh - and that nuclear forecast did indeed show up on Sunday, ever so shortly after we pulled into RYC. Whew!
