Race Report - Which Bay? Pursuit

Eight boats ventured out in what was forecasted to be "light and variable" winds Saturday for the "Which Bay? Pursuit". The race was 15 miles in length (round Copper, round Survey, past Strawberry, round Railroad and down Andrew Bay). The race featured a few surprises. First was the second appearance of Invictus in a club race. They had a great time and plan on becoming more active in the racing scene. The second was the reemergence of the Wells brothers on Steve Wells' newly acquired Goliath (the former J29 Ice Tea).

The wind was pretty steady between 5-10 kts from the north- west. Chute run down to copper, short beat up to survey then the kites went back up and most boats carried them for the remaining 10 miles to the finish. It’s not that often you get to carry a chute for over 10 miles on LOTW. This gave the boats lots of time to focus/experiment on chute trim and do some speed testing with nearby boats.

Rounding survey, Raven, Goliath and Grand Cru were in the lead and within spitting distance of each other. All three met back up passing through Strawberry and they again went their divergent ways. All three met up once again (no more than a boat length between them) rounding Railroad for the third and final "restart". The remainder of the race was down wind on port for the 5 mile stretch down Andrew Bay. At times the chute was a tight carry and a few boats dropped to get higher up the course before resetting. It was a great sail and beautiful day. Kudos to Stewart Anderson who not only overcame some time consuming boat issues in order to get to the start line, he also single-handed the race while flying the chute.

Finishing order:
1) Grand Cru (Beneteau 36.7) 3:25
2) Goliath (J29) 3:28
3) Raven (Abbott 33) 3:35
4) Borderline (C&C 30 MkI) 3:45
5) Sorcerer (C&C 34) 3:52
6) Auberg (C&C 33) 4:54 (towing dinghy)
7) Rapture (C&C 32) (non spin)
8) Invictus (Aloha 30) (non spin)

Thanks to all who came out.