March 27, 2021-Banderas Bay Regatta

john pounder - jldigitalmedia

Preparing to set the Spinnaker

Twenty knots of wind, the biggest kite up, time to jibe. 

The bowman yells “Made!”. 

The afterguy is attached, good, but it needs to come in. 

“Grind, Larry!” 

But Hell! Why did the old sheet get tossed off the winch? I don’t know why but there it goes. 

I grabbed the errant sheet just as it began to run out. Holding the sheet in one hand, the tiller in the other, the boat is oscillating, someone is yelling, “Who has the sheet?” 

I could feel the sheet slipping. 

“I do, and I could use some help.” I answered. 

Richard turned to me but I could see he didn’t see what to do. 

“Put some turns on that winch please, right now, and grind it in.” 

There is tension in all of our voices.

 But by now the afterguy is coming in, I regain control of the boat, the kite is pulling like a runaway freight train, we are surging, the power is on. 

In this way we made a big gain on the asymmetrical boats. This is our wind, our point of sail. We are flying. 

Bottom mark, early take down, jib and main in, come up to weather for the last time, the boats from the class ahead are right there, seconds ahead of us. We get a first. 

The next boat is minutes behind; we owe him only seconds. 

Perfect! 

This is how we won the Banderas Bay Regatta. Strong winds, strong boat, strong crew. It was a fantastic regatta, we all felt it. 

On the ride home after the finish we were jubilant, we drank Champaign. Some of the crew broke into song. It was a beautiful song. God why didn’t I capture that song? But those voices are in my head. They will stay there. 

 As will the memories of this race. 

Click here for more photos

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Banderas Bay Regatta