Trailersailors first offshore race!

Posted By: Beau - Hunter 23.5 - Kemah TX
Date: 6/5/00 4:15p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

Was reading some of the other articles and thought some might find this interesting. This is a recap of my first offshore race......(Takes place October of 1999) The race started Friday at noon from Galveston, Texas and ended when you reached Port Aransas Texas near Corpus Christi. You had to be in Port A. before 5:00 p.m. on Saturday to be counted by the race committee. One thing that surprised me about this race is that motoring is permitted. Each skipper is required to keep a log of time motored and at the end of the race you report your time to the Race Committee. For every hour you motor a penalty hour is added to you finish time. For example if you motor 1 hour then 1 hour is added to your total time. Needless to say there is a strategy to when and if to motor. I was racing on a 1997 Beneteau 36s7. Beautiful boat rigged for racing with a 7-foot draft. The captain is a serious course racer and an occasional offshore racer. He hates motoring! We had a six-man crew (I was the only offshore rookie). The trip is 158 miles traditionally down wind. Well so much for tradition! When we started the race we had about 10 knots of wind right on our nose. Over 243 boats were at the starting line. What a sight! Most boats were in the 33-ft to 50-ft range. We had great start and tried to hug the coast to take advantage of a friendly current. The weather reports were calling for a front to hit us around midnight and the winds to slowly clock around to the north (to downwind). We sailed tacking back and forth in to the building wind and seas until 8:00 p.m. until we need to do a sail change. We had been sailing with a full main and a 130% kevlar gen. When the wind reached 17 knots (still on our nose) and the seas hit 4 feet we did a sail change. Let me set this up...the waves are crashing over the bow, water is spraying everywhere, everybody is in full foulies and harnessed to the deck and I'm on foredeck duties. It was too rough to do a running sail change so we would have to go nose to wind to setup the blade jib. (A 85% kevlar head sail with battens). We didn't think we would be using this sail so the battens were not in the sail. I along with another crewmember (Al) had to go below deck and perform the task. In a pitching boat, now sweating because of all the foul weather gear I came close to reach the upchucking point. But I didn't! Thirty minutes later the battens were in the sail. Now in a near sea sickness state, I had to go upfront and lower the gen., feed the blade into the sail slot and hold on with the bow nearly going under after each wave. Talk about a cure for seasickness! As the wind continued to build to 25 knots (still on our nose) and the waves hit 5 feet, I tried to go below because my watch was over. Here I learned a couple of things. First off all it sucks. The boat bangs so loud every time it falls off a wave you think its going to breakup. Secondly, every time the crew above tacks you roll into the opposite side hull or the floor. As I tried to fall asleep I listened to the VHF and heard of a boat getting demasted, two others calling maydays (could only hear the coast guards side of the conversation so I don't know what was wrong.) and one other calling for vessel assist to help them. But the biggest thing I learned about trying to sleep below in those conditions is I can't unless I want to chum for some fish over the side of the boat! After about 45 minutes of little naps below I woke up and went on deck to see if I was going to get sick. The cold wind and spray made me feel better so I snapped my harness on the high side and lied down on the rail. For the next four hours I slept in short little spurts until a noise or a wave would wash over us and wake me up. Its amazing that you start with so many boats around you but in the middle of the night there were times we would go for hours without seeing any other boats running lights. About 3:00 in the morning the wind had clocked around enough for us to sail close hauled directly at Port A. I was real excited until Kel said "only ninety miles to go". For the next 4 or 5 hours we sailed at near hull speed 6.9 knots through the 4 -5 foot seas. At about 9:00 a.m. on Saturday the winds had clock around to the north so we were now off wind and could raise the brand new spinnaker. The winds had dropped a little to 17 knots and the waves were now with us but still 4 feet big rollers. Again it is my job to set up the spinnaker, so up front I went. The boat is now kind of surfing down the waves. When stern is picked up by a wave the bow kind of dips below the water's surface. (Fun ride) Anyway, we set the spinnaker and life was great except for the wind was so strong and the spinnaker so big it would lift the stern and the rudder out of the water. So all crew the members had to stand on the stern behind the wheel and try to weigh the stern down. It was a pretty exciting ride. I think the wind was a little too much for the amount of sails we had up so the boat was very hard to control. We had eight hours to go and would barely reach the finish line before the drop-dead time of 5:00 p.m. (But we had not started the motor! No penalty time!) We had the boat up to 10.1 knots as we surfed down the waves! Then the nightmare stared again! The boat started into a broach. (Out of control) The captain tried to save it but it rounded up and the spinnaker twisted. As we got back under control the spinnaker untwisted and we heard a pop and the spinnaker (brand new) fell from the halyard into the water. We scrambled to the foredeck and got it out of the water before it went under the boat. It now looked like we were doomed not to finish in time. We sailed on a broad reach for awhile, then wing and wing. (We couldn't hoist another spinnaker because the halyard was stuck up at the top of the mast) When the wind died down to 10 knots we hoisted Kel up to the top of the mast. He is very brave. I am not. In four-foot seas he actually said it was fun. He is a nut. He was counting boats over the horizon. He is at the top of the mast in those conditions and still thinking about winning! After all that we rigged the spinnaker again and for the first time (24 hours since the start) we had a relaxing sail. We did the math and it looked like we were not going to finish in time. We even motored (sin!) for 1 hour. I actually slept (again still topside) for 3 hours or so. Bottom line·. We finished at 5:45. Out of the 243 boats that started, 43 finished before 5:00, 20 more finished after 5:00. (One boat finished 15 seconds late and got the hard luck award...Ouch!) All other boats either turned back or went in somewhere along the coast for shelter. There were 1400 people in Port A. for the Bacardi Cup Party. Only 450 or so arrived by boat, the rest arrived by car. We were real proud to make it there. In hindsight we should have probably motored more during the worst of the storm. Most boats that finished before 5:00 motored over 4 or 5 hours (some over 15 hours). The party was great, Buffet type live band, great barbecue, and all the rum and beer you could drink. Our crew didn't stay long we were all asleep by 10:30. I'll end it with what I wrote in the log. My first offshore race. Slept all night on the rail. What a ride. I'd do it again tomorrow.