Sailboat Racing Adventures

We had a great race Saturday In Bay Cup I, we had 11 boats in our class, ranging from a J/35 to a Catalina 22.

On Toccata we had Barry, Eddie, Nicole from Footloose, and Phil, a guest from Corpus Christi. Here we are checking in at the committee boat.

The first race was in Galveston bay and was a two legged race, with a downwind start to the high range marker followed by a beat to SE along the Houston Ship Channel.

Starting to pass a few boats…

Crossing the finish line in 4th place (corrected)

The second race was in Trinity Bay, a four legged course, also with a downwind start. We raced a total of 16 miles.

We were  5th in the second race. We ended up tying for 4th place, but because the racing rules use the winner of the last race as a tie breaker we got 5th place overall. We performed well, beating a C&C 35, Cal 40, S2 10.3, Ranger 33, Erickson 39, and Beneteau 49.

We had hiccup at the dock – the engine would not stay running; Flying D gave us a tow out of the Marina and we sailed back into the slip.

We sailed the first race with the #1 genoa but switched to the #3 because the winds were pretty strong. That decision probably cost us a place. Lessons learned: once in Trinity Bay the wind dies down in a S or SE breeze because of the wind shadow produced by Smith Point and the south side of Trinity Bay.