Harvest Moon Regatta 2004

Harvest Moon Regatta Oct. 21, 2004

Getting ready for the Harvest Moon Regatta is a good thing. I makes you fix all those nagging little maintenance items. It makes you give the boat a good shakedown. It gets you focused on using those sails to make the boat move. And you will need a good crew to make the boat perform to its best.

We replaced needed house batteries, repaired two sump pumps, changed oil, fuel filters and oil filters on both engines. During the first shakedown trial the propeller suffered an unusual failure... one of the three blades broke off. Glad that one happened before we headed out to the race. Not that we would use it during the race, but we would need it on the planned long trip back from Port Aransas. We had the bottom scrubbed just before the race, but did not have time to recalibrate the knot meter.

We were fortunate to recruit a seasoned crew.

Gary and Juli Graham, Luke Sterling, J.J.. Wallace signed up.

Each of the crew had been on more races than Marion and I. Both Marion and Juli are excellent at the helm; I just point out a boat ahead, and tell them to catch it. Then they tell me to pay attention to the trim and make the boat go faster. This combination worked well because we were never passed by any boat while they were at the helm and we passed at least a dozen before nightfall. Luke and J.J. are also great at the helm but they don't complain about my trim. Gary somehow pulled something in his neck early in the race and was out of commission with immobilizing pain. He did not get to do much sailing. I am not a good helmsman because I am easily distracted. That's why I concentrate on the sails.

Some of the 200 boats before the start

More boats

Line up to start

Starting Line Flagship Hotel

Gary, J.J. and Ed

Juli on the Lookout >>

Passing a Hunter 40.2

Others we Passed

Photos by Luke Sterling and Juli Graham

Remedy at finish

Remedy at the finish

Photo by Barbara Wallach

The race had winds out of the South both days. Winds were about 15 at the start and built to 22 plus gusts up to 30 on the second day. Basically the race was on the nose all the way. Seas were 2 to 4 at the start and 4 to 6 on the second day. J.J. claims there were 8 footers. At any rate we took water over the bow several times. The breaking waves splashed high enough to wet down the bimini top and thoroughly soak the crew in the cockpit.

In the previous race the wind and seas dropped in the night and we were barely moving. In this race the wind and waves began building at sunset and we reefed both jib and main to about 80%. It was very exciting sailing.

The real race was won or lost in the dark of the night. That's when there were no more boats to chase down. That's when the moon set and we could no longer see the unlit offshore oil rigs. That's when there was no real sleeping in your centerline queen bed because the occasional 25 degree heel would dump you on the floor. That's when our dinghy, hung on the swim platform, began to catch the crests of passing waves. This phenomenon added a slight drag and a bit of lee helm. Marion hearing the splash of water on the swim platform thought it was raining and woke me, "Get your foul weather gear on; there is a downpour; we need to relieve the crew."

"What are you two doing dressed like that?" asked someone as we came topside.

"I thought it was raining and we came to relieve you." said Marion.

In the morning, fortified with gingersnaps for that queasy feeling, Luke and I used block and tackle to reposition the dinghy clear of the waves.

We were able to do the entire race on one long port tack. There were three minor short tacks. The first was to get clear of traffic about 30 minutes after the race start. The second and third were short tacks to clear the Freeport and Aransas marks. In both cases I had programmed the GPS at the helm with the wrong buoy locations. Luke's Garmin Chart plotter and the Capt'n running on my laptop on the Nav station both had the correct locations, but the discrepancy did not become obvious until we could no longer lay the mark. We lost about a half an hour doing these two short tacks.

Party Time

The unofficial TMCA list of competing boats who finished the race are:

Orion

Savannah Rayne

Stellar of Course

Remedy

Eliza

Renaissance

Quest

Blue Max

Kindred Spirit

Kahlua

Fiona

Sea Gypsy

SOEL

There was a wager between Ben Reyna and Sam Ausmus on who would have the best corrected time.

Several other boats joined the rum pool.

The TMCA boats who Ben thinks brought rum and their adjusted times are:

Savannah Rayne 0:18:58:15

Sea Gypsy 0:19:11:10

Remedy 0:19:55:04

Stellar of Course 0:20:40:56

Orion 0:22:07:35

Eliza 1:02:07:30

Before the Race results were announced the rum was brought to Remedy for Sampling and Safekeeping.

Pictures of the resulting Party:

Photo's courtesy of Bert Olivari

Orion joins the Raft	The Raft
Ben Reyna strummin	Raft and Reyna

Photo's by Philip Kropf

Special thanks to Gary, Juli, Luke, and J.J. for being a great crew. And to Marion my special helmsman who drove the boat and provided for us so well.

The answer is "Yes."

And what do you think was the question?