9pm Monday July 12, 2010
Diane reports: Kingston to Bowmanville: breeze out of the west and blowing a pleasant 8-10 knots all the way! Sunday saw much the same as Saturday. We did lots of tacking back and forth. Although Philippe Laville on Pogo Loco pulled miles away out of sight, Nathan Baron on Boy’s and Girl’s Club and I got some great opportunities to really compare notes on trim, shape and performance.
It turns out that with my Genoa I can’t point as high as Nathan can with his jib. Nathan doesn’t have a Genoa for comparisons. It was a great argument at 10 knots for point vs speed on headsail choices. Ultimately speed won and although I kept dropping below, the speed put the pedal to the metal and got me ahead.
Then around Bowmanville the breeze completely eased and backed. Woo hoo code zero up! Then came Big Blue the biggest kite we carry. Then it got really light.
Funny, over the horizon I see Nathan approaching. Ah… the iron genny has been deployed! Now the motoring race was on. Wait a minute? Bowmanville…! Minis don’t carry that much fuel… Do they? Do we? Turns out you can motor with a 3.5 or a 4 hp engine from Bowmanville to Port Credit with 9.75 litres of fuel of the 10 litres of fuel you have onboard!
Great race guys! I think the Pogo won on “speed in the three handed demonstration” division, OGOC won on the “massive sail area and speed” division and Boys and Girls Club won on the “smartest lets motor” division!
This weekend we’ll really see how the boats perform. Hopefully I will be able to get my autopilot working by then. It decided about Bowmanville to commit suicide and refuse to play with the rest of the kids! Don’t forget that we will have a regular tracker for the boat for the Lake Ontario 300 and you will be able to see all the boats racing and draw comparisons along the way. Have a great week everyone!
Tim again – once the LO300 has started, I’ll get some instructions about following the race with the Kattack tracking system. First start is 11am Saturday.
