Thursday, we sailed Averisera from Stage Harbor to Hyannis YC, had lunch at the club and Ubered home. Friday, Norm did some last minute preparations including wiping the bottom again.
We are moored adjacent to the fleet overall winner, a Pearson 32 rating 174. Last year she beat us by 70 minutes. We feel the need to improve on that time delta. Maybe beat her by 70 minutes?
We are in the Spinnaker Division. Our Class, D, contains the slowest spinnaker boats. The ratings range from 210 to 138. Averisera is a 141 boat. The class average is 160. The fleet has two divisions, spinnaker and non-spinnaker. The non spinnaker division contains a lot of boats that rate near us and slower. We will have 55 boats, mostly non-spinnaker, starting ahead of us. Lots of chaos on the course.
The forecast is for 10 to 15 knots from the South West all day. Could happen. Our first and last beats are easy high performance points of sail for us. The 10 is nm reach is the hard part.
Some pictures of the preparation:
In the foreground is the Pearson 32, Expedient. She won the whole thing last year with a first to finish. We noticed that she did not find the wind hole most of the rest of us did. She is well sailed and congratulations. Hope we prevail this year. Beyond her is Averisera. Still farther out is a Cape Dory 32. Three boats of the same length and completely different designs.
Our rail padding is fitted to make certain the hiking crew, Z and t, don't suffer too much from the sharp tow rail edge. Hiking is an important job, more important than often described. Our boat must sail flat.
Zachary and Tabitha are crew, Tom Brown is driving, Norm is doing bow and boat identification. Elizabeth runs the show and navigates.
Report on the finish to follow.
