Dana, Vincent, and I sailed a light air regatta on the 22 at Canyon Lake this past weekend. Canyon Lake is a tough place to sail in the summer; the breeze is usually light and fickle. The boats that find breeze do well. The boats that do not, well… they suck.
We spent long periods drifting around the course, sandwiched around a few minutes of exhilarating 5 knot gusts to finish in 7th place. We were largely disappointed with the result. After Saturday’s racing, we were tied for third. But then fell back to earth on Sunday.
In the first race Saturday we planned to go left, taking advantage of perceived better breeze and avoiding the middle of the lake. We got a good start and dug hard left off the line. Cactus Jack and Shredder (two good local boats) were just to leeward of us, so we figured that we had it sussed. Until we saw the rest of the fleet. Most boats went right, sailed into a 40 degree header, tacked and crossed us by about a quarter mile. We struggled back through the middle of the lake in no breeze, and spent the rest of the race slowly picking off boats to finish 6th. Dieselsnack horizoned the fleet on this race. He probably finished 15 minutes ahead of the second place boat.
The second race began much like the first. Again the right was working, but this time we were on our game. We worked up to 3rd place for the final leeward leg, but the fleet compressed at the bottom mark and practically restarted for the final upwind leg to the finish. 10 boats went around the leeward mark together in a 1 knot mush pile. Due to some dubious decisions on my part, we did not fare so well and came out of the rounding in about 12th. But we picked up better breeze left center and passed all but 3 boats. Both Tejas and E3 managed to pimp us right at the end of the race, and we settled for 5th.
Sunday’s racing was much like Saturday. The second race, Sunday, was even lighter than Saturday. It was not blowing. It was sucking. I probably over-sheeted the main in the super light stuff, and over-helmed a bit. One driver told me post race, “There’s no sense bearing off if there is no wind. Just point the boat at the mark.”
I also need to be a little calmer, a little more patient, in the light air. Things get a chippy on the boat when you go from 3rd place to 15th because of a tactical error. Dana did call me an anger ball more than once. I’ve got to learn to relax.
Next circuit regatta is at Oklahoma City. Then a break for August, followed by Austin, And then Houston in November. I doubt I’ll make Oklahoma City. Anyone have a boat in Oklahoma City I can use? But the Austin and Houston stops are definitely on the agenda.
