Winter Racing

It’s been a gorgeous January in Texas, giving us some great sailing and racing on Galveston Bay.  Right after the New Year, Galveston Bay Cruising Associations (GBCA) hosts an informal Icicle Series on Galveston Bay.  The race is a reverse start by PHRF rating.  60-70 boats have turned out each Saturday for some fantastic, relatively warm, winter sailing.  The first race on January 4th, was again good practice, but we didn’t do so hot.  We sailed conservatively with a reef and our small A4 spinnaker, which meant we were a bit off the pace.  It didn’t help we sailed down the wrong side of the run slower than boats without a chute that went down the correct side.

This past Saturday was Icicle Race #3 and again the weather was fantastic, the breeze just a little lighter than Race #1.  This time, again with Chris driving and me pulling strings, sometimes correctly, sometimes not, we didn’t do so badly.  We ended up 16th overall and the first S.O.S. finisher (single-handed and double-handed entries).  I’m pretty sure we are largest boat in the S.O.S. class and the only boat in the class that flies a spinnaker.  It was also our first outing with our new medium sized A2 spinnaker from Ballard Sails and it seemed to be plenty fast and easier to handle than the huge A2/K2 sail.  Thanks Alex!

Below is a video summary of Race #3 with all our triumphs and mistakes.  We count at least 17 things we can do better next time.  That’s the beauty of having onboard video!  Learning from our mistakes.

Watch video here – Winter Racing

Big thanks to GBCA Commodore, Scott Lacy, for the great on the water photos (more are embedded in the video).

Shearwater, just after the start.

Next weekend we are off to San Francisco for a Pacific Cup Academy Seminar.  Then it is back to Seabrook for Icicle Race #5 the first weekend in February.

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