Day 2 Recap - Mustang Island to Matagorda Island

Picking back up on my GT300 summary, I thought I would hit on the highlights of days 2-4. In comparison to the boom-breaking weather we experienced on day 1, day 2 was a "lollipop ride." The wind started on the high side of the I20's design wind, maybe 16 knots or so. The start was a bit interesting as the first place F18 team, Ruff Rider, took off exactly 1 minute before the horn. Sounds like someone set their watch wrong! This led the other top 2 boats, Velocitek and TCDYC, to take off along with them, as well as several of the slower teams at the other end of the line. They would all receive a 15 minute penalty, as well as the amount of time they started early... about 16 minutes total.

After the starting issues, we raced off with the other F18s, headed about 5 degrees higher than the rhumb line. The sea state was fairly confused, with 3-5 foot swells, some occasionally larger. We were headed high enough in relation to the true wind that we could not carry the spinnaker, but not so high that we needed to double trap. I remained on the wire for probably the first 50 nm of the day, securely attached to the boat via a chicken line, which is a basically a preventer line for your body that keeps you from flying forward whenever the bows stuff into a wave and the boat slows rapidly. Somewhere between miles 20 and 30, the F18s that had been heading 5 degrees higher than us decided to pop their chutes and double-trap reach for the remainder of the race. Both teams Velocitek and Ruff Rider, who were about a mile or so further offshore than us, began to bear down, eventually crossing our line only hundreds of yards ahead. I believe they made it all the way down to the beach with their spinnakers up and rode the sea breeze to the finish. 

At some point Yost and I tried our spinnaker and the best we could hold was still a good 10 degrees lower than our bearing with both of us on the wire. Keeping this number in mind, we decided to ride it out single-trap reaching. Around mile 50, the wind started to die down a bit so I came off the wire and began sitting on the windward hull. As the wind continued to die, I eventually began riding the leeward hull, occasionally dashing back up to the high side in the puffs. We were committed to the rhumb line, so we did not dare head for the potentially higher winds closer to the shore. Instead, we decided to simply continue on our heading, still about 5 degrees higher than the rhumb line, then pop the spinnaker as soon as we could. We were far offshore and our only company were the numerous oil platforms. Main and jib only until our bearing was such that we could hold the spinnaker. We could only speculate as to the wind the other boats were experiencing, and we were anxious to finish so that we could determine whether or not our tactics paid off. 

8 or so nm from the finish, we determined that we could hold the kite, and Michael and I both got out on the trapeze. We calculated perfectly, and were able to hold this configuration to the finish. As time passed, we spotted the 3rd and 4th place F18 teams, TCDYC and Rudderless, a bit further back along the beach. If we didn't screw up, we were headed to a 3rd place elapsed finish. Screw up we did not, and we were greeted with cold beers at the finish. After all the boats were done, Mike Beuerlein, skipper of Team Quicksilver who had been rescued the previous day and had yet to recover his boat, cooked us all a nice gumbo. Mike isn't from Louisiana, but I am, and after a day of racing I deemed his gumbo top notch!