J-Fest - Race No. 5 on Sunday, April 14, 2002
Race 5 started in a building breeze. With the wind indicator showing high teens at the start, it looked like the weather forecasters small craft advisory was going to be accurate. These were our conditions, a perfect opportunity to make up for Larrikins less than stellar performance in races 1 - 3. Following a short delay to reset the line and with everyone exercising more caution than usual in the heavier air, race five was off to a clean start. In a good position at the top mark we finally learnt that it is better to duck the starboard tackers rather than tack and pray the flood doesn't dash your chances to lay the mark - which it always does! A good set and we're off down wind keeping well away from Whisper as they round up with kite only partially under control. (That's a very loud kite for a boat named Whisper) A neat gybe in 20 knots+ and Natural Blonde is our next target to real in. That wasn't too hard as the skipper was face down on the foredeck trying to keep the forestay from unwinding. I bet that was fun! Avoiding the pile up at the starboard gate we cruise around the outside in good position and get cranked up with good speed and point. We're really getting into this heavy air stuff until.... @#$% what was that, what happened to the luff tension on the jib? We exit race 5 with a blown jib halyard. Ah well there's always Vallejo. We did have a great spinnaker ride home down the Alameda Channel in 30 knot gusts. It's a pity we didn't have that breeze for race three. Maybe everyone would have crossed ahead of the container ship. Thanks Encinal, thanks Chris Corlett, thanks sponsors, it was another great weekend.