Second bi-weekly String Theory Challenge

by Jeff Storck

Well, those of us who braved the negative weather predictions had a great night on the river July 14. . Rob Tompkins came out to try and take my beer away from me, as did Bryan Lanier and his Buccaneer. If you let the weatherman scare you away, shame on you! Nabeel came down and set up a nice course for us down by the power plant. We got off 3 races before retiring for the evening. Here is how it went:

Race 1: The winds were light and got lighter as the evening progressed. I was a little worried about the Bucc since they are so fast in light conditions. I had Pat Mcgee and Cathy Bleakly for crew. Pat decided that it was easier to get my beer by sailing with me than against me I guess! We got off a decent start, but as I expected the Bucc took off in front. We did well sailing up wind and working the shifts so we rounded the mark just behind Bryan. Bryan went off to the right side of the course while we stayed left downwind and again rounded just behind him. There is where he made his mistake and we pounced. He went right, on a headed course,  and stayed with it a little too long. We tacked into the lift, and sailed
straight for the finish line. Chalk one up for String Theory.

Score: String Theory - 1, Challengers - 0

Race 2: I thought we were going to have a great start on this one. I thought wrong. How can you be over early when you are the only boat at the line??? I think they call that driver error. We started again - dead last -  made our way up the course. Rob went right which turned out to be a mistake and we passed him. We rounded the windward mark a couple of boat lengths behind Bryan and tried to catch him. For some reason he ended up way wide of the leeward mark, and when he turned to get there, we instantly
had inside rights on him. He did not hear my hail and ended up fouling us at the rounding. I yelled "Hey we had rights!" I told him not to bother taking his turns as we were only out for fun, but he being the good sport he is, took them anyway. We sailed by him for the win.

Score: String Theory - 2, Challengers - 0

Race 3: This time Bryan gave his boat up to Nabeel for a try. We got a great start in drifter conditions. Nabeel was stuck way below the line and Rob was in dead air. We were riding a puff and took off. Before very long we were half the leg in front, but Nabeel and Rob doggedly came on after us. The Bucc's superior light air speed started to bear fruit, and Nabeel slowly gained on us. We rounded the mark in front by a few lengths and started down wind. By that  time we were in full drifter mode. Nabeel slowly caught up to us, and due to a little jibe snafu on our part we let him get inside and in front around the leeward mark. Doh! I thought he had us here, but we soldiered on. Nabeel and I were on the same tack, but sailing in different air. He was headed, and we took a huge lift. He tried to tack back and we gained on him considerably. Then he tacked right in front of us - GRRRRR!  But it was a slow tack and we powered right by him and left him in the dust.

Final Score: String Theory - 3, Challengers - 0

Hee hee! So the beer is safe for another week. The Heineken Challenge will return in 2 weeks on July 28. Who is Skipper enough to take those frosty libations away from me????

Cheers,

Jeff