FCYC 2010 Fall Series: Hard-Fought Fun
Friday September 17, 2010 - Court Touwslager and the False Creek Yacht Club put on another great season of Thursday races this fall. With Rob working in Kamloops, Issey stayed tied to the dock so once again Krikkit was out campaigning in Division 3 with a mix of regular crew members and fun guests. Thanks to Jen, Lisa, Denice, Chris, Flash, Kate, Miguel and Loree for coming out and making the season memorable. Special thanks to Marek for taking care of things on the pointy end for the entire series, getting the spinnaker successfully hoisted and doused even during those roundings when the skipper threw in unexpected gybes and the cockpit crew pulled all the wrong lines.
Once again the racing was tightly contested -- Krikkit managed to secure an early lead with a pair of 2nd-place finishes in the first two races, even beating outJasmina in Race 2 (missing 1st place by 2-1/2 minutes to Nimue, who'd skipped the opening race but come out swinging in the second). Races 2, 3, and 4 sawJasmina get back onto their winning form and into 1st overall, and saw Aqua Perla and Nimue come on strong, making for some really fun racing and giving Krikkit a serious challenge to hang on to 2nd overall. Race 5 saw us under-crewed and overpowered (yes, Simon misjudged whether the wind would die off or hold steady, and had the wrong sail up -- he really should listen to the crew!). Despite an awesome start we slid back into the fleet and wound up in a tacking duel on the last leg withNimue, who beat us on corrected time but didn't quite reach Aqua Perla. That left Krikkit still in 2nd place overall by the narrowest of margins going into Race 6, and then Mother Nature stepped in and called it done, with the wind dying off five minutes before the gun and the rain starting five minutes after the gun. With Loree calling tactics Krikkit got a decent start in almost no wind, and crawled up to the slightest of wind rivers, where after 40 minutes of intense slow sailing we were halfway to the windward mark and rapidly catching up to Reacher at 2 knots when the Race Committee abandoned the race, leaving Nimue still on the start line (and in 3rd place overall in the series) and Krikkit celebrating 2nd place overall in the series. Well done, crew!
L to R: Miguel, Jen, Loree, Marek Simon