Full Tilt Sailing Team

Commodore's Cup race

Saturday was sunny and warm, but there wasn't much breeze. The wind was basically out of the south, and Kevin Tisdale set up a shortish course with a downwind start to Welch's Point and back, twice for spinnaker class and once for cruising.

As it was, the wind was very light, so the run to W took forever. The way back was a bit easier but still annoyingly light. I think we got a 3rd place out of 4 boats in the non-spin class for the first race.

The second race was even lighter, with 2-3 kts. apparent wind down to W. We struggled with our class for a while, then gybed away to port. The other boats in our class got tied up with a boat from the spin class, and they all slowed down. We reached the mark a good minute before them and rounded into a light breeze.

On the final 1/4 mile, our mainsheet traveler got stuck, and with a couple more tacks needed to get to the finish line, we slowed down a bit. But we hung on to finish within a minute of the two faster boats and I think we got a first place on corrected time.

We didn't hear results yet because immediately after the race we headed to Branford, to raft up to Teri and Pete Binkley's "Wild Eyes" at the mooring stakes to watch the annual fireworks display. I think our final placement depends on what the tie-breaker formula is, but at the very least we'll end up with a 3rd place.

Me before the race. Check out my "Commodore's Cup" hat!

A few boats during the pre-start.

Our crew proudly showing the team colors!

They were setting and dousing their spinnaker for practice before the start of the race.

After the race the wind came up to about 10 kts. from the south, so we had a nice single-tack reach to Branford, with the autohelm taking care of the steering.

Race and fireworks video will be available at some point, if I can get the time to edit it before I leave for a week's vacation next week.

posted by CT Bob @ 10:17 PM