Ahoy Sailors!

Yup, big race with the Flip Flop tomorrow, our first pursuit race of the year. A few things for those that are doing the race, and one thing for those who are not.

First of all, if you are NOT on the crew tomorrow, I have room on the rail for one more. We have the full 8 on, but with the forecast calling for breeze in the mid-teens AND 60 percent of the race likely to be a beat to weather, I would be happy to have a little extra rail meat to help with the point. It is supposed to be a lovely day to be on the water, anyone interested??

Next, speaking of weight, if you are on the crew tomorrow PLEASE be as mindful as possible on the gear you are bringing with you. I spent most of this week hauling every piece of non-critical, non-racing gear off the boat, and likely reduced her weight by AT LEAST 500 pounds. We are into the important part of the racing schedule, so please think about the forecast tomorrow and bring only what you are likely to wear/use/eat during the race.

OK, on to the fun stuff…the forecast. Mostly sunny, high of 79, winds solidly from the West in the 10 to 20 knot range, with an ebbing (foul) current until 2:30, then a flooding (favorable) current the rest of the day. Our start is at 12:42:43, the 16 mile race is likely to take us 3 hours and 15 minutes to finish, so we will be at low water right in the middle of the race.

The course is a fun one, using a combination of drop marks and government marks, starting out in Broad Sound and finishing right off the Hyatt by the airport. Details are here on the course: https://www.regattaman.com/races/2019_Flip_Flop_Regatta_SI.pdf?rev=20 The course is 16 miles, give or take, and as it stands now we are likely to be the slowest boat in the A Fleet, so our job will be to stay ahead of all the boats starting behind us, WHILE passing all the boats that started ahead of us. Easy-peasy, right??

Scratch sheet is here: https://regattaman.com/scratch.php?race_id=488&cancel_dest=def_event_page.php&rnum=0&sort=0&ssort=0&sdir=undefined&ssdir=undefined

We should be back to the dock in the 4-5 PM range. There is a party at the Courageous Sailing Center after the race, I have tickets for all crew members racing. If you want to NOT go home and instead shower/change at our apartment in the North End, you are welcome. If anyone else wants to come over for the shiddig, it is 6:30 to 10:30, has drinks, food, live music and a lovely view of the city from the pier.

Here are the details if you want to buy a ticket ahead of time, or they are available at the door: “If you prefer to have your crew buy their own party tickets directly, they can get the crew discount by going to this website: https://e.givesmart.com/events/dLJ/ They need to select the number of tickets they want, enter name, address, etc. and on the last page fill in their CC info. Click on the highlighted blue link that says “Have a discount code? Click here to enter it” and enter crew2019 .”

Our plan is at the boat at 9:30, so we can be off the dock and make it out to Broad Sound (a 90 minute motor) in time to pick a spinnaker, figure out our angles on the first 3 legs (70 degrees, then 120 degrees, then 177 degrees), work out if we can hold the reacher for leg 3, then get the boat tuned for 10 miles of upwind sailing. As always, there is water and Gatorade on the boat for the race, Corona and cider for after. Bring a sandwich/snack to eat before the race starts (we will have downtime from 12:15 to 12:35) and bring extra boat speed…we can ALWAYS use that!!!

OK, off to the skippers meeting to try to talk our way into B Fleet, wish me luck. At any rate, see you all on the water soon…

Christopher Zibailo
J/112E dopodomani