Three Bridge Fiasco

My brother was in town for the weekend which was quite unexpected and so welcome! He does not usually sail and we decided to sail around the Bay during the three bridge. Quite a sight!

So we approached the race course with a 30 second strategy chat and the intent to have a ton of fun. And fun we did have.

We set the kite and sailed the course and even a bit more :) My brother drove most of the way, except a little upwind in heavier wind.

Several mistakes:

1- boat was not set up for high breeze shorthanded and we got very lazy with the sail plan upwind - I did not have reefing lines and it would have been good to put a reef in in the last leg upwind in 30 knots of wind

2- we chose to carry the genoa a little too long, probably damaging the sail more than we had to and flogging the (nice) racing main. We finally had to change down to a jib as the wind went up from 10 to 30 knots as soon as we were out of Racoon Straits.

Downwind, no such problems and Elise behaved nicely as her usual self.

We played a couple of tactical game with other boats and for a short while optimized for boat speed and did pretty well against our most immediate neighbors.

 

 Norcalsailing Photo of Elise and Simba.

My brother driving on a tight reach

 

Getting his strength back after some tough sail changes.

and a wet day on the Bay for a very unique three bridge!

Elise at rest after the race

Roger's new boat at rest after the race

and we all met at the bar, like true sailors :)

Thank you again Elise.

We finished last in the E27 group right before the DNFs and about 196 total (beginning of 2/3 of the total fleet), not bad for someone who had never driven an Express before :) nor set foot on a sailboat for many many years!