2005 Koehler Cup Story

Saturday = light air. We started out flying the reacher until the wind went behind us -- then we put up the light air chute. We could probably have finished, but we would have been WAY late for the rum party hosted by Raven. Instead we chose to get in at a reasonable time (and get a slip :). Saturday night we grilled Judy's marinated pork tenderloin, and it was good! Kim drove up. Judy and Kim got us a dozen ears of roasted corn from the Ashtabula YC's steak and corn roast. Then the rain came -- Judy and Anne (from Powderhound) slept in Caroline's tent in the shelter (ask Judy about the 1AM TV viewing:)

Sunday, winds were predicted NE at 8 -- well that was not be. We once again started out with the reacher for the offshore. About 5 miles out we sensed a wind change coming. Judy and Sue got the chute down just before we hit some radical swirls and the wind shifted quickly to NE. We beat upwind for about another 3 or 4 miles in 8-12kt winds and then, in a period of about ten minutes the wind built to 20-25. We furled the number 1 and continued on the full main (we hadn't pre-rigged the reefing line because the forecast said NE at 8). Then the waves came. Most of the time we were looking at 6 footers. We all agreed that for most of the trip, we were also contending with ten-footers about every 5 to 7 minutes. Some of those provided for incredible surfing -- especially the breakers. We only took one breaker too close to broadside and it broke over the whole boat, and a goodly amount of water flowed down the companionway. We kept thinking that it would blow through. Finally, we had to motor sail just so we could get enough speed to tack during the 4-6 footers. We sailed with a full main the whole way. The wind meter showed 25-27kts true wind for about 3-4 hours (other boats reported gusts of 38-40 -- my wind meter doesn't show intantaneous peaks). Others agreed that the peak waves were ten feet. Some boats reported seeing waterspouts, some reported seeing tornadoes over land. Barney and Keya turned and ducked into Conneaut. With our keel, we didn't think Conneaut was really an option. Finally about 4:30 or 5:00PM, the winds subsided to 10-15, but the waves persisted. Going back into the bay, we were doing 6.7 kts in the channel (GPS speed over ground) because of the current (finally in a helpful direction). We got back to the slip at 6:45PM (10.5 hours).