photos by Christian Friis |
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Meanwhile,
Uncle Al and Anders
Friis
were having quite the race. Uncle Al was staying
between Anders and the
mark while defending the left. The boat speed had
been pretty even all
the way up the beat but about 300 metres from the
mark, Al lost his
nerve:
he and Anders were both on starboard with Al still
about 80 m. off
Anders'
bow and slightly to leeward when the wind veered and
both boats were
lifted
about 10º. Now Anders was almost laying the mark and
about 20 m.
to
windward of Al. Fearing a further lift that might
make it impossible to
cross Anders, Al talked his crew into letting him
tack and "spend some
of his lead". Al crossed Anders by a only couple of
lengths and he
waited
those two lengths before tacking on the layline. Now
the boats were bow
to bow 100 m. from the mark with Al laying it and
Anders just below it.
With the help of a slight further lift and a lot of
of great sailing,
Anders
was just able to lay the mark, round inside Al and
move into the lead.
With the rest of the fleet having fallen well back,
it would be a
two-boat
fight down the run.
..
And that run was a most exciting battle. Knowing very well that whoever rounded first or inside at the next mark would win the race, both Anders and Al gybed to port. With only a boatlength of water between Anders' transom and Al's bow, Al was well placed to take Anders' wind but of course every time Al went up, Anders did likewise. After a few attempts Al and Anders P. decided they would have to try to "outspeed" Anders F. and Sune. And Al and Anders sailed Whistle beautifully to max speed for the wind while they pulled further and further ahead of the other 34 boats. But they couldn't gain a centimetre on Anders and Sune who were likewise sailing Wassail perfectly. Having gone about 200 m. high of the leeward mark on port tack, the boats would have to gybe to starboard. So, Al's next plan was to gybe later than Anders and try to get the inside overlap that way but Anders wasn't buying and waited for Al to make the first move. Finally, it became apparent that if we waited much longer we would be reaching into the mark on starboard and have no hope of catching Anders. So we decided to gybe. As soon as Anders P. handed me the spi sheets, Anders F. threw his boom over. Thinking fast, Uncle Al delayed his gybe until he was right on Anders Friis' wind. (After the race, Anders Friis was disappointed to learn that Al's manoeuvre was not intended to "fake out" Anders but aboard Whistle, we were proud of our fast thinking just the same.) In any case, we took enough of Anders' wind to catch him, but now faced a problem: we could easily take Anders wind and pull even with him by going to windward, but that would be useless because it would leave us on the outside at the mark. So we pointed our bow just to leeward of Anders' transom and hoped we would take enough of Anders' wind to get the overlap. What an exciting couple of minutes! About three lengths from the mark, Anders looked back and announced that Whistle had no overlap. Al was not sure and so took Anders' word for it. As we luffed up and cleared Anders' rudder by a centimetre or two, Al suddenly remembered the spinnaker which would be a good half a metre out in front of the bow that both Al and Anders had been staring at (see illustration below) ... ![]() .. Whistle
had gained an inside overlap and I'm sure
Anders would have given
us
room if Al had pointed out the overlapping
spinnaker. (Oddly enough,
less
than two weeks later, Uncle Al was telling his
crew, Marc Bennett,
about
this exciting race and how for the first time in
nearly 50 years of
racing,
he had been stuck trying to blanket Anders and
still go for the inside
overlap. Marc had the solution from his 470 days
in Jamaica. It was
simple
once you heard it but of course, if it took me
another 50 years to see
that situation a second time, the solution
wouldn't me much good.
Imagine
my surprise when, the very next morning, we hit a
similar situation in
our North American championship! I tried Marc's
suggestion and it
worked
perfectly!! Can you guess what his suggestion was?
The answer is about
halfway down the page at
..http://wayfarer-canada.org/nostalgia/events/event.nostalgia_M-Z/NAC/2002/02NACrace2.html |
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... as well
as Anders P. (l)
and
Uncle Al couldn't stop talking about this exciting
race. Even our loss
to Anders and Sune left us smiling from ear to ear. This
is
what
racing should be: nearly flawless sailing, exciting
battles of wits as
both crews did their absolute best but always within
the limits of
friendly
competition. Congratulations, Anders og Sune! It was a
pleasure racing
with you! And of course, racing with my own
super-crew, Anders
Pjetursson!
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