HOW THE WEST WAS ALMOST WON!
We got a chance to check in w/Rubin of Chutzpah on his Tripp 40 and here is how it went last week in Key West:
On the first day of racing we were not the smoothest team but still managed to beat all but the Aerodyne 395’s and took a fourth. During the second race we were a half boat ahead and to leeward, separated by about 10 ft. of a 395 on the first upwind leg and were squeezing them out. A starboard tack boat rating 42 appeared and it looked like a easy cross. They past to stern closely but without a “situation”. They unfortunately felt they had to alter course to take both our sterns as well as the 395’s and protested us. Since it was so early in the regatta and since the possibility of losing a protest like that would be so devastating (13pts) we took the optional 20% penalty and that cost us three points. Later the bowman off that boat apologized to me and indicated that they really didn’t have to duck us-I thanked him for his honesty but the damage was done! We took a 4th plus three!
Through out the week our boat handling, crew work and tactics really came together. With Benz’s great shift calling…we took firsts and thirds in each of the next four races. During the last race we were over early and after restarting we worked our way back up to 3rd place, we blew one shift that might have moved us up to first but ce’la ve Benz was perfect otherwise. Approaching the finish line on port we tacked over to starboard to finish. Unfortunately our new jib sheets with new hardware opened on the port side (the type with a rotating pin lock) and by the time we got moving again three boats slipped in on us with less than two boat lengths left and we took a 7th, our worst finish.
Our 13 boat fleet was very competitive, “Doc” the Olson 40′ skippered by Donnie Brennan sailed well in our fleet and finished 4th. At the end of 7 races Chutzpah was in first place one point ahead of Tango(and Aerodyne 43 rating 12) and two ahead of Tsunami(a Farr 395 rating 33)The last day of racing would be in light air. The Aerodyne took a 9th in the first light air race and admittedly would not do well in
Race 8. All we had to worry about was the boats from behind, primarily Tsunami which was well sailed but we had been beating them more often than not. They would need to take a first place to beat us unless we totally tanked which was unlikely, as we now had the boat dialed in for most conditions and “our crew” was ready to sail that last light air race. Even Benz had got to bed early. The breezes reached 4.5-6.5 but the race committee cancelled the race. Not ten minutes later we were looking at 8’s. By not starting the last race and allowing a throwout we slipped from first to second by one point losing to Tango, a boat we certainly would have run over in light air and who had to give us 33 secs/m.
