How Close is Close

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How Close is Close?

Yesterday we had five boats participate in consistently windy, shifty conditions. Sailing were Forest, Owen, Alex, Eric Ro., and Griffin. On the chase boat we had Dan, John, and Brig, all of whom had the best seat in the house for some incredibly close racing.

Owen started the night off with a runaway win followed closely by Forest. This race set the tone for what would be an excellent night of sailing by Owen.

The second race was a two lapper, and it was taxing. Griffin did a great job of hiking hard and using lots of boom vang to allow him to sheet out in the puffs, keeping the boat flat and fast. He might not have pointed as high as everyone else, but he was going fast to weather. Downwind he was simply the fastest through a combination of staying in the pressure and sailing the boat aggressively.

Race four saw Eric come to the fore sailing fast and with power. He really didn’t look back.
The last race had to have been one of the best I’ve ever seen. Alex started at the pin, but the predicted leftie really didn’t show up. Owen started at the boat and kept everyone under his thumb. He tacked when he wanted to, and continued to control the tight pack. Alex and Griffin stayed on starboard for a while, deciding to come into the mark on port. Griffin tacked several boat lengths before Alex, made a huge duck of a starboard tacker, and got in the starboard tack line, which was now the white Wall from Game of Thrones. Alex tacked onto port and, like the Night King riding the reanimated dragon Viserion, used his blue boat power to cut a hole in the Wall, tacking just under Griffin.  I was screaming like a kid!  Definitely the move of the night.

But this race was far from over! Yes, Owen had a lead, but the pack of Forest, Alex, Eric, and Griffin compressed to the point where they were four abreast reaching the zone at the leeward mark. Eric was on the outside and swung wide to jibe first. Forest had inside overlap on everyone and made his rounding with Alex right on his tail. Griffin rounded next with Eric closely following, and both tacked to starboard. Owen held onto his lead to win the final race of the evening, and the finishes were boom, boom, boom, boom after him.  How close is close?  Very!

Afterwards, Dan joined Eric, Brig, Forest, Alex, and Griffin at Lake House. It was a great capper to a fun evening of racing.

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