Sailboat Racing Adventures

J/Fest is over and we had some great sailing on Toccata.

Saturday started with a small craft advisory, and the winds built all day. We went out to the starting area under main and were extremely overpowered. We saw winds in the teens and low 20’s gusting to high 20’s. As we waited for our start the winds continued to build and I elected to withdraw for the day. That evening at the dinner several people told me that I made the right decision. Footloose told me it was miserable sailing and commented that the felt their main had gotten as much use that day as a year of Wednesday Night racing.

Sunday was forecast to be 10 NE but the wind did not read the forecast and it was as high as 23, although it did settle down as the day went on. We got two races in and placed second in both. The first race we had a great start and hung with Footloose most of the race with the J/29 following us. The second race we missed the warning to the start and were late to the start. Footloose and the J/29 finished ahead but we beat J/29 on corrected. We also had some excitement towing Footloose and getting the some water plants wrapped around the propeller…

We learned a lot about heavy air sailing on this regatta, especially getting the main as flat as possible and tuning the rigging.