Team HS entered this year’s Beneteau cup with three goals; have fun, learn spinnaker handling skills, and be competitive. We accomplished all three!
Big shout out to the crew; Terri, Marco, Tim, Chad, and Brian who had very limited racing experience yet did an excellent job in windy and intimidating conditions! They did so well that we made up, and awarded ourselves, the White Sails Trophy, as we were the top boat in our fleet without performance sails!
Saturday’s forecast was for light breeze and heading out to the race course that morning confirmed it to be true. That was until east county unexpectedly cleared up giving us 12+ knot conditions with a strong current and semi-lumpy seas. Race 1 we were off with a clean start and in the top two positions heading to the windward mark. While on the final lay line to the top mark, we were forced to tack away for clean breeze causing us to lose a couple spots before rounding. After the minor set back, the spinnaker was deployed and Nancy Jean took off chasing down the boats ahead. After a successful downwind pass on the final leg, we finished race one with a 3rd out of 13. It was at this point we knew we could compete and we had great downwind speed, time to reset everything and get ready for race two.
Race 2 was more of the same with a 12+ knot breeze and a favorable right side of the course. Our start could have been better as we had to battle to get to the right side in dirty breeze surrounded by half of the fleet. We decided to split about halfway up the course since we knew we couldn’t match the speed and point of the boats around us, so we tacked away and changed our tactics slightly. The call paid off as we were able to sail our own race in clean breeze to get back into 5th place at the windward mark. The spinnaker was set beautifully once again by the crew and it was a drag race to the finish with little opportunity to pass.
Sunday’s race was a random leg course with conditions forecasted to be windy but no waves since we were inside the bay. It did not disappoint as the breeze was a steady 15 knots with gusts up to 18. After a clean start, the entire 13 boat fleet sailed the short upwind leg where the top 5 boats rounded the mark within a few boat lengths of each other (us included). It was then a couple mile drag race on a tight reach in gusty and breezy conditions with speeds above 7 knots. We decided to sail a bit lower than the boats ahead in order to get clean breeze and to sail our own race (sounds familiar), it once again paid off by limiting the separation and extending on the boats behind.
We rounded the turning mark in 5th position and set up for what would have been an amazing spinnaker run down the bay. Caution prevailed as it was too tight of a reach for the spinnaker so we sailed white sails for about a mile until the bay opened up allowing us to turn down onto a more favorable spinnaker angle. A very difficult spinnaker set was handled expertly by the crew and we were chasing down the boats ahead. After excellent crew work by the entire team (who learned everything just 24 hours prior) we gained on the boat ahead and eventually made a beautiful leeward pass into the gybe just ahead of the leeward mark. Our team did a masterful takedown of the spinnaker as we turned around the mark and then it was cruise control to the finish line in 4th place.
At the end of the weekend, Team HS sat in 4th place just one spot away from the podium, but we celebrated our make-believe trophy over a couple beers at San Diego Yacht Club. Thank you, South Coast Yachts and SDYC for hosting such a great event, we’ll see you next year!