Pursuit Race #2, July 28; Hobie Cat Tails 2021-2, aka In Pursuit of Monohulls

By Bill Colgan
The morning started with a decent west wind that promised to build into the afternoon. A record 13 boats signed in at the skippers meeting but that was soon cut to 12 as Shep was called back home for an AC emergency. There were 4 Flying Scots, 2 Inland 20s and 2 single handed Hobie 18s. A Getaway, a Hunter 216, a Hobie 16 and a Precision 21 rounded out the fleet. Extreme low tide, caused by the westerly wind, was an issue for some of the hoist and marina boats.

I was running late getting my boat to the beach so I didn’t see most of the boats starting. My sense was that most everybody started late. I shoved off about 30 seconds after Dave and we were racing to the start as we would also be late by about 1 minute. On the first leg, it was a beat to Marsh Island. The wind was gusty with lulls which made trapping out very iffy. Just as soon as I would get out on the wire, I would find myself dragging in the water. Dave, on the other hand, was using his wings to great effect as it was easier for him to get in and out when necessary. Half way across, Dave went left and I went right looking for the Love Creek lift. I found the lift and limited the damage to about 2 minutes.

Leg 2 was a reach, not much opportunity to catch Dave here. I sailed just low enough to get away from the trees then used the wind to max out boat speed. Leg 3 was also a reach. I rounded 7A and looked up the bay to see most of the boats in a straight line to the next mark. Remembering the Love Creek lift, I headed high sailing a faster angle into the new wind where I could then head down maintaining the faster angle. Around mark 3 and the Flying Scots were just in front of me.

I headed up to a beat around the mark and looked to sail up Love Creek to the Marsh Island layline.
The wind had built to where I was able to consistently trap out. I hit the line and tacked beating most of the Scots to the mark. Dave looked to be only 1 minute ahead. Around the mark, I stayed trapped out and eased the main. I couldn’t reach the jib sheet so I was backwinding the main a little. The plan was to look for a lull to go in and grab the jib sheet and then trap back out. That was a bad plan. When the lull didn’t last long enough, I was caught on the tramp. My main was cleated in and the jib sheet was in my hand. I was swimming before I could react. Well, not really swimming as the water was only 4 feet deep. It took about 5 minutes to right the boat and get back under way. Thanks to the Doody’s who stuck around to make sure I was ok. They got a 5 minute redress for their sportsmanship.

Back to the race, now that I had control of both the main and jib, the boat took off like a rocket. I was passing monohulls like they were standing still. Dave however was out of reach, taking the win. The rest of the results are below.

Thanks to everyone who got me their race times. The modified start times for pursuit 3 are below the results.

Boat Class HelmName CrewName Rating Racing Elapsed Time Corrected Times
Sail Ugly Hobie 18 1up Dave 800 1:30:00 1:52:30
Hobie Getaway Hobie Getaway Tim 1024 1:58:00 1:55:14
Hobie Flyer Hobie 18 1up Bill 800 1:37:34 2:01:58
Flying Scot Flying Scot Bob Sue 1097 2:16:30 2:04:26
Inland 20 Inland 20 Stew Harris Don Walbrect 1025 2:07:36 2:04:29
Inland 20 Inland 20 Justin Harler 1025 2:10:00 2:06:50
Hunter 216 Hunter 216 No Spin Neil 1145 2:27:30 2:08:49
Flying Scot Flying Scot Brian 1097 2:30:44 2:17:24
Flying Scot Flying Scot Roger Dick 1097 2:32:49 2:19:18
Flying Scot Flying Scot Chris 1097 2:34:59 2:21:17
Hobie 16 Hobie 16 Craig Harry 900 2:19:00 2:34:27
Daysailor Daysailor Shep 1211 DNS DNS
Precision 21 Precision 21 Steve Rob 1172 DNF DNF