FCYC Icebreaker Regatta: Bad News, Good News

(Photo, L to R: Jason, Zenon, Denice, Chris and Kate)

Then the bad news: Doing a naked spinnaker takedown (i.e, no headsail rolled out) after the finish, we tore the chute ... again. The good news? The tear was across the repaired spot, so no real additional damage to Tutti Frutti. And this time, we not only figured out what was going wrong, but we had a a spare onboard for the next race.

Simon drove the second race again. We put on the 150 headsail and hit the line at the gun in a decent lane, but moving slow -- not the best start. Again, we had a tight and entertaining boat-for-boat battle with Arashi, on a bit of a reachy course, and finished the race within one second of each other. Too bad we owe them a ton of time!

Thursday April 14, 2011 - Krikkit got out on Saturday April 9 for a day of truly entertaining racing in the VARC/FCYC Icebreaker Regatta. It was a two-day regatta, but like most of the Div 3 fleet we only made it out for the Saturday. We certainly picked the right day to race, with overcast but dry skies and a good 12-16 knot offshore breeze (Sunday was seriously wet). The crew included Simon, Chris W., Denice, Kate, Zenon Samila and Jason Vandergaag (aka Schnick).

Simon drove the first race while Jason ran foredeck, Kate on the kite, Zenon and Denice on jib and Chris in the pit. We ran the 130 headsail, and got a reasonably good windward start, a few seconds late at the gun but moving at speed. We hung in with Brigadoon and Arashi for the first half of the beat, but after tacking Brigadoon was able to point higher and get away. We had Arashi on our hip and couldn't quite shake them. Round the mark we were still in close with Arashi, but Raspinfly managed to pop ahead. The rest of race 1 went the same way -- we held off Arashi and crossed ahead, but not far enough to correct on them.

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(Left photo: New this year for VARC are BMW sponsor decals.)

(Right photo: Simon in an unfamiliar position ... on foredeck!)

For the third race, Jason drove and Simon ran foredeck. This time the course was somewhat less reachy though still not square. Jason got off a nice start and we managed to claw our way ahead of , who managed to tear their own chute on the first takedown, letting pull ArashiKrikkit ahead and finish not ... quite ... far ... enough in front (the final standings saw Arashi correct eight seconds ahead ofKrikkit). So, some close, fun racing, but the bad news is with only four Div 3 boats competing we got a solid last place. But the good news is, we finished much closer to the leaders in this regatta than last year's VARC Opener, and we were just out playing for the participation ribbon on this one anyway. And it was a hoot!