From the Prime Directive Logbook - May 8, 2004.
What a great day! This has got to be the most fun course we've sailed
in all the IC races we've ever done, in spite of our major screw up (more
about that below).

At the prestart, there were only inconsistant dribbles of wind from all
round. Made planning a start really worrisome because of the flood
current, which was already very strong and increasing. However, after a
couple divisions had started, wind came up from West and built well. It
was right in our best range and didn't raise much chop, so we were in for a
treat.

Race committee picked course 5, which looked great for
multihulls. From the windward mark, it goes down on a broad reach to a
leeward mark, turns and reaches across the bottom. Then the second lap
includes a short reach at the top of the course, and a broad reach (on
opposite jibe from the first lap) so you cut through the middle. A short
windward leg to the finish line concludes it. There were no dead-downwind
legs and the tricky part was in judging the current's effect on courses to
the bouys.

For the start, Chief Tactician Tint Khine called for port-tack to get
to the heavily favored right side (up current), but soon learned that going
against the grain entailed ducking three times to let starboard tackers go
by at the line. Once racing, however, we had clear air and laid the
windward mark with only one tack and just Three Sigma ahead of us. (If we
had visualized the current like this in the Vallejo Race, then maybe we
wouldn't have done so poorly there, oh well.)

The leg down seemed like such a high angle that at first we just
watched Three Sigma to see if they would put up their spinnaker, and when
they did we followed suit (er, gradually). By then we were halfway to the
mark but still had a great run passing some monohulls from earlier
divisions at high speed. Managed a decent takedown and rounding, still
behind Three Sigma, and then the fun really began! F-31's love to reach
and this was our element. We caught up to Three Sigma and then left them
behind as there were occasional puffs that we could translate into even
more speed. The rest of the monohulls were also made toast on this leg.

Upwind once again, we didn't guess as well as before and had two extra
tacks to clear the mark, followed by a fast reach across the top of the
course. The downwind angle was just right so that we had a great ride
under spinnaker in the high teens on GPS, heading straight for the
mark. Well, that's where things fell apart cuz the spinnaker snuff was way
late and we continued zooming right past the mark and going in the opposite
direction from what we needed! Then we sucked a corner of the spinnaker
under water somehow and were soon in a full-blown shrimping exercise--
which I thought was impossible when using a spinnaker sock? With the sail
hooked over the bow of our starboard float the only option was to round up
and sail backwards to clear it. Meanwhile, lines going everywhere had
jammed up the jib furler, so we were left with main only, in irons, and
watching Three Sigma round the mark (by now far away) and head for the
finish. My commendations go to Foredeck Manager Tint Khine for taking on
the job of sorting out the soggy disaster at the bow while Crew Chief Mark
Lawrence (commendations also) helped recover control in the cockpit and get
underway again. To top it off, so to speak, I looked up and saw the end of
the spinnaker halyard floating in the wind above the spreaders.

Finally rolling out the jib, we got back to rounding the mark while
meantime Defiance had come by to lead us to the finish line. We can
correct out on handicap in front of them, but definitely not against Three
Sigma, with which we would have needed over 12 more minutes to beat, or
something like that. We may have wasted that much time during our
frustrating shimp episode, and it felt like we were almost down to the USS
Hornet in the NAS channel before we got going again. Not really that far,
but it felt like it.

I started this report by saying what a great day it was! Nothing
broke, nobody hurt, no visible damage to spinnaker. Spinn halyard was
recovered by swinging the screacher halyard to wrap around it five times
and pulling down gently. New throttle and shift cables worked ok. Ate
favorite Mexi food for dinner. Shook fist at Three Sigma for a challenge
next time. Tint and Mark are still smiling and will come back for IC-3.
(Thanks guys!)

--Dave Gilman, Prime Directive F-31