2nd Race--Less mistakes but last

2nd Race Night--Fewer mistakes but last in class -- Friday, July 19, 2013 -- Last night there wasn't much wind and it really hurt us.  The C-Lark has a very small jib and doesn't perform all that well in whisper light air.

First race.  We were really on top of the start.  We would have been the second across the line, starboard tack, plenty of room.  Then these folks in a Flying Scot came bearing down on us from the start side of line--they were windward and port tack.  I hailed them three or four times and they did know we had the right of way but didn't know what to do about it.  So finally we had to gibe, turn a 360 and give way to a lot of boats we would have beaten to the line.  The Flying Scot people ducked across the line, tacked back and started way ahead of us.  We missed all the puffs and stayed in last place.  Our error was compounded by sailing for the wrong mark along with five other boats, which still would have been okay.  The wind was shifting and it looked like we would make the first mark in one tack--but alas the wind stopped, we drifted, we finally finished ahead of one super high tech boat badly sailed.  (It all worked out though--I didn't protest, but the FS people fell in the water trying to dock.)

Second race.  Same kind of deal.  The small jib killed us.  By the time we were sailing fast, we just headed back to the line and told the committee to give us a Did Not Finish so that we weren't holding up the fleet for the third race.

Third race.  A little more wind.  We did a little better.  We even got to use tactics a bit.  A Tanzer was right behind us as we went for the finish.  I reminded him that we were on the same tack and I was leeward.  I told him, "You know I am going to gently rub you off on the committee boat."  Fortunately he actually had a passing understanding of the  rules, and was fine with it.  So we actually were second to last twice and took a gentlemanly DNF to help out the committe boat.

Of course the wind picked up a bit later. We had a nice sail back to the marina and sailed up to the dock in about 7 knots.  The wind picked up to a steady 10 later.  We could see it from the bar.

No major screw ups.  Most of the little improvements helped.  Tony and I are really into racing, but we really need a more age-appropriate boat.