Sunday, September 27, 2015

J/92 THIN MAN- Sailing Vineyard Race

J/92 Thin Man crew(Larchmont, NY)- Todd Aven’s J/92 THIN MAN has raced in Long Island Sound regattas and offshore races for quite some time now.  Todd’s team has either been double-handed racing or fully-crewed in major events, winning some, enjoying some, and along the way collecting some silverware or pickle-dishes for friends and family.

Recently, in the Vineyard Race, Todd's friends discovered there was a discrepancy in the rating of the boat that was scored as beating them.  Naturally, this led to some “interesting discussions”.

According to Todd, “after my friend alerted us to the issue, the Stamford YC Race Committee promptly investigated the issue and adjusted the scores based on the correct ratings.

Looking at both PHRF 4 and 5 combined, we had the 5th fastest corrected time to Seaflower Reef, 2nd fastest time on the return leg, ending up 1st in class and 3rd overall.

It was a particularly hard upwind as we had a very seasick crew member laid out at the stern and frequent visits by others to provide attention and fluids. Needless to say, not optimal crew position for the 3-6 foot seas brought up by the easterly 15-25kt breeze.

I slept for about 1.5 hours out of the total 25 hours, on the helm most of the 15 hours upwind.

J/92 Thin Man winnersIt was wet and nasty and rough upwind all the way to Seaflower Reef Light (15 hours), and correspondingly, it was a blissful downwind sleigh ride home with the spinnaker (10 hours). The breeze was generally easterly and moderate to strong, with a brief light spot for the last hour upwind to Seaflower.  All the boats we were racing against were bigger and heavier and had less trouble punching through the seas upwind. We made up lots of time on the downwind return, just enough, as it turns out, for that 1st place spot!”