Our George Town Regatta results

2 PM Friday, Mar 9

I mentioned that Barb and I sailed in the two "Big Boat" races in the regatta's catamaran class aboard Liam and Annie's 52 foot Australian Catamaran Gone With The Wind 

S/V Gone With The Wind, Sydney, Australia

along with fellow Australians Phil and Karol from Tahani Lee. 

Annie, Karol, Phil, Liam, Barb and Jay

The first race was the In-Harbor Race, a triangular course of about 8 miles that was sailed twice around.  Liam brilliantly positioned us to be first across the line at the start, but in the tacking duel to the first mark we were pinched out so that we had to make a tack to follow two other boats right at the mark, missing hitting Liam and Annie's friends, Bruce and Toni on Remi De, by a few feet.  We were passed by a few other boats on the downwind run,

Photo from Remi De, presently in first place, has Glory Days, Los Gatos, Gone With The Wind (us) and Windsong in pursuit. 

view from Gone With The Wind

but made up some distance on the third leg.  We made some good tactical decisions on the final circuit, rounded the last mark and crossed the finish line third.  We do not know the final results yet because a handicap is applied to the boats based on some mystical formulae that rates the relative speeds of the boats covering a nautical mile.  Liam thinks the first place finisher, Glory Days, has a rating of 75 while Gone With The Wind and Remi De both were rated at 60.  That means that Remi De certainly placed ahead of us because they crossed the finish line 2nd behind Glory Days, the clear winner.  The rating system would have us giving up 15 seconds to Glory Days in addition.  I think the ratings of the boats should have been reversed, but we wouldn't have caught Glory Days anyway.  It remains to be seen if
the fourth, fifth or sixth place boats have a favorable enough rating to place them ahead of us.  I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

In the Around Stocking Island Race, we started first again, but this race was timed for each boat individually, so if a boat started five minutes behind us they could finish four minutes behind us and beat our time.

No whisker poles allowed so the guy with the whiskers (Jay) stands in with Karol.  No spinnakers or screechers allowed either.

Jay and Barb adjusting the traveler holding off Deja Vu

It is not all work, running at up to 12 knots in Exuma Sound, Jay, Barb and Karol relax

We finished close behind Glory Days (again) but they started after us and have the favorable rating.  So they beat us.  Whether anyone else did or not remains to be seen.  I think we finished with at least a third, maybe second, so Liam and Annie should go home with a trophy, etc.  Our friends William and Trisha on Aventura, an Island Packet 440, raced in this second race as well and while they started ten minutes ahead of us and finished long after us, we think that they won their class.  Their rating was 139.

The awards celebration is tonight and we will find out then how we did.  Tomorrow morning, the winds will be such that we will leave our present position and probably head Eastsoutheast towards Long Island for a change of pace and a change in scenery, if the seas are not too big.  It has been blowing 25-30 knots with higher gusts (gale force) for three days.  Today the winds are down substantially so the seas may be down enough to head in the desired direction by tomorrow.

11:25 PM Friday -  Wind speed 11 - 13 knots out of 125 degrees

Just as we hoped for, Gone With The Wind garnered a third place in both races

Annie picks up third prizes for the In Harbor Race

Barb and Annie run off with third prizes for the Around Stocking Island Race

and in the Around Stocking Island race, both Gone With The Wind and Glory Days finished ahead of Windsong, but Windsong won first place with a favored rating and a better elapsed time.  Gone With The Wind won an award for the best start, just 6 seconds after the gun.  Barb was keeping the time and doing the countdown.

Annie and Karol pick up the Best Start Prize

It was a good showing for Gone With The Wind.  

The crew and its booty

Aventura took 2nd in her class even though they crossed the finish line before all the other boats in the class.  Regatta is finished and we still hope to depart George Town tomorrow, but there is some doubt due to winds.  The wind speed is a little high for the seas to lay down by tomorrow and the wind direction presently is from the direction we wish to travel.  Not promising, but stand by.