Close Competition...
Sunday May 20, 2012 - Krikkit's first race after the annual spring haulout and bottom paint was the VARC/FCYC Blast Spring Regatta on April 21, with Simon, Chris G., Kevin, Kate, Mike and JP Ostrander on board. It was great fun, and we had an outstanding day of racing with five short windward-leeward races, from 10:30am 'til 4:00pm in a nice solid 8-12 knot breeze and sunny weather. The finishes were all very close, with typically only a minute or two separating first from sixth place. Krikkit held off Nimue and the Hotfoot 31 Thursday's Child to pick up 6th place out of 8 boats.
(Photo: Krikkit, on the right, leads Thursday's Child and Rhumbline to the leeward mark in the FCYC Blast Spring Regatta)
We then went into distance-racing mode for the WVYC Halibut Bank/Popham Island Race on April 28, which was held under mixed cloudy and sometimes dampish skies with variable winds between about 5 and 10 knots, with Simon, Kate,
Kevin and Simon then went out and put in a dominant double-handed performance in the sunny, breezy TCYC Passage Island Race on May 19, getting a very good start and legging away from the fleet to finish 2nd across the line behind Senza, which was good enough for 2nd overall, just ahead of the 49-foot Palmer Johnson Scaramouche and well ahead of Aqua Perla and the smaller boats in the Div 2 fleet. Close competition is fun, but sometimes it's nice to finish 20 minutes ahead of your competitors, too!
Kevin, Kirk and Peter Sherk signed up. After getting some interference from a Div 7 boat and blowing the start, Krikkit crawled back up to the tail end of the fleet and then found some good air after rounding Popham Island, staying high and reeling in the fleet to within striking distance. We then all benefitted from "the lift that just kept giving" and, being the windward boat, Krikkit was able to get ahead of Voila and Arashi … but Arashi pulled a nice move at the finish to pip Krikkit by one second. After all the math was done at the end we corrected into 7th place out of the nine boats, but once again it was close racing, with only five minutes separating 3rd from 7th after 3-1/2 hours on the water.(Photos: At right, Peter, Kirk and Kevin at the finish of the WVYC Popham Island Race. Below, Simon single-hands Krikkit in the TCYC Sailpast Race.)We then got underway with the FCYC Spring Thursday series starting May 3, where an epic battle is developing between Krikkit and Rhumbline for 3rd overall. Krikkit had the edge for the first couple of races, but Rhumbline pulled off a well-earned bullet in the third race, which definitely leavesKrikkit with our work cut out for us. Stay tuned for that one …In the meantime Simon redeemed some honour for Krikkit in the single-handed division of the TCYC Sailpast race on May 12, edging out the CM1200 Raven (skippered by Ian Lloyd) for 2nd place single-handed behind Ted Sharplin's well-sailed Cal 20Pinnical.
