Full Tilt Sailing Team: The Wellness Cup 2008

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Wellness Cup 2008

We took the day off on Friday to get to Branford. Brewers Bruce & Johnson Marina donated free dockage for the weekend, which was very generous of them. The forecast was for awful weather, with 20-30 kt. easterlies predicted. Fortunately, the wind subsided to about 15 kts. by late morning, so we motored over in the afternoon. After we registered at the Branford YC, Tim picked us up and we went out to dinner at Lenny's with Tim, Lori, and two work friends from England.

The next day after a hearty breakfast we got to the boat by 9AM. We put on our foulies, since the weather was threatening. We nailed the downwind start and took off towards Pond Point and back, which was about 17 nm. Of course, it started raining immediately, but the rain brought decent winds, so we got up to 7.4 kts. in about 10-15 kts. of breeze.

We finished in under four hours and got back to the dock by 3PM. We went out to dinner that night at Darbar India, which was hot and tasty. After an exhausting day, I was asleep by 10PM.

Sunday we had a lazy morning, and we got down to the Branford Yacht Club for the 1PM party. After the awards ceremony, we motored back to Milford under partly sunny skies. Many thanks to Tim & Lori for their wonderful hospitality, and Teri & Pete and the Wellness Cup volunteers along with the BYC for putting on a great event.

There were four classes, and results of the entire race is located HERE. Full Tilt won our very small class (only one other boat) but we still had a great race and got the boat moving really well. We would have liked to have had another four or five boats to race against, but the weather forecast worked against participation this year. I'm sure next year we'll have a lot more boats entered, especially if we get better weather.