Now I've Done It.....

I sent in my Three Bridge Fiasco entry this week. I am now committed to the Doublehanded Non-Spinnaker fleet. Well, Bob and I are both committed, I ordered the other t-shirt in his size.

I'll try to describe this race if it's even possible. It's a pursuit race with three marks (two of which are islands). You can cross the start line in either direction and round the marks in any order. Over a 2 hour period, there is a new start every 1 minute and 3 seconds; each start is reserved for a particular PHRF number (198s start at 9:53:06AM). There are usually somewhere around 300 boats entered.

The start is chaotic, but the race is designed so that the finish should be even more chaotic as theoretically everyone should finish at the same time. Being slow, I don't really anticipate being anywhere near that particular cluster of boats. But maybe, just maybe.

Being in the Non-Spinnaker fleet, I won't be starting near the boats I'm competing against. The spread in ratings is 138 to 240 for the four entered so far. But, then again, the entry forms were just made available on Monday.

I'm psyched for this race, it's an all day affair and a complete crapshoot for weather. Three of the last five years, there were more than 90% DNFs due to lack of wind. Last year was a howler with wipeouts all over and I know of at least one boat that DNF'd due to too much wind. But for the most part, people reefed and just pushed on for the 4-6 hours.

The Singlehanded Sailing Society puts on this race and rumor has it my dock-neighbor is on race committee. Not that that helps any but at least there will be a familiar face somewhere near the scrum of this psychotic start line.