Race back from Oxford 2005
(The Hammond Memorial Regatta)

Crew: Glen, Brian P., Tim
Competitors: 247, 57, 484

After a good night's rest in a borrowed slip, we grabbed some food and coffee and headed to the start. Thankfully there was more wind than Saturday--but not much.

The start was downwind, and without Scott, we did our best. (No offense, Brian!) We ran the line on starboard and bore off to set the chute. C.B. decided to port tact the fleet, and set his chute early. With speed, a wide line, and few boats to contend with, C.B. had a nice start in first place. We started in front of T.C., but he soon caught up and passed us by gybing out from under us.

At this point C.B. and T.C. continued tp head to the left on port and we stayed pretty much on the rhumb line since we had enough breeze to make 2 kts. T.C. motored to the first mark beating C.B. in the process. No one is sure why that happened.

We were probably 30 boat lengths behind C.B. at this point and feeling pretty bad. However, the wind was on and off again, and shifty at that. We did our best to pay attention to the shifts (some of them 30°), and by keeping track of them, we were able to make some good tacking decisions.

By the next mark, the standings had reversed, and we were in the lead. Fortunately we had lead enough to cover C.B. to the end while barely making the finish by the time limit.

While not a lot of wind, there was enough. The crew did a great job and it was nice to get the gun!