Race Report - Bay Race 7

By Jim Fern - Jag

While the real men of MYCQ were readying their boats for the day’s adventures, the henpecked and the sooks of the club left their boats tied up because the weather forecast wasn’t brilliant and it happened to be Mothers’ Day. My sole crew, Lyle, had deserted me the week before with a feeble excuse that he was on his honeymoon – where has loyalty gone? I decided to replace him with another woman and my lady love Libby agreed to join me on the water.

The rain had cleared to bright sunshine by race start and the 3 dedicated multis (Frequent Flyer, Renaissance and Jag) blasted off the line on a tight reach in 15 – 18 knots from the SSW. Frequent Flyer was in turbo mode and disappeared over the horizon trying hard to earn extra flybuys. The breeze started to back towards the SSE so Renaissance and Jag were hard on the breeze while FF had vanished.

Around the Cleveland Yellow and up went kites for the run up the bay to Hope Banks and gybe for the broad reach back to the finish in Waterloo Bay. FF by now was on his own Tour de Bay but Renaissance had a smart set of his biggest spinnaker and charged into the distance. The snuffer sock on Jag is supposed to make short handed spinnaker work easier. Usually it does but on this occasion, it refused to go more than a third of the way up. My vocabulary was restrained as I was still trying to win the heart of my new helmsperson. A wind shift back to the SSW saved Jag from humiliation. The mess of the kite was thrown below and Jag reached up to the beacon and headed for the finish on a spray flying tight reach.

Renaissance had pulled its tortoise and hare trick on FF and finished well ahead to claim line honours, OMR and Performance handicap wins. A stewards’ inquiry will be held on Frequent Flyer’s wanderings around the bay and perhaps the crew should be swabbed. On Jag, I’m just pleased that my new crew still fancies me.