First sail of the 2006 season...

Here it is, the first weekend in June and TIME MACHINE is headed out for her first sail of the season. It's the Commodore Perry Race, a 24 mile zig-zag across the Western Lake Erie basin. Conditions at the start are gloomy and wet as the last of the rain showers soaks the fleet. The start is a port-tack reach in 5-8 knots. We time it perfectly and end up with clear air at the front of the fleet. By the time we reach the center mark, it's clear that something is wrong with the heading that is coming from the Sailcomp. We are well low of the rumbline and it's time to sail a bit higher angle to fetch the East mark.

We round in 3rd place and have trouble figuring out which board we will be on for the next leg. After moving the bag and pole back and forth 3 times, BIG RED is unleashed and we power down to the South mark, pulling away from KICKS. The rounding is a mess as we foul the jib sheets in the spinnaker gear, but after things settle down, we are off on a close reach. By now we are sailing on the old magnetic compass and the GPS.

The winds have been 8-10 knots with 20 degree shifts in the puffs. The backstay is going constantly.... ease and then pump, ease and then pump. The sound of the jib sheet cracking off the winch mingles with the burble of the water against the hull. The skies are getting lighter and it looks like the sun will be out soon.

Another close reach to the Monroe outer marker is in order. We take the low course, banking on a lift in-shore. It almost doesn't happen, but in the last 0.5 mile we get a nice lift right to the mark. KICKS took a high angle and was able to sail around us on the better angle.... who knew!

The run to the North Mark turns into a full blooded reach with BIG RED pulling well. Winds are now up to near 15 knots and we seeing boatspeeds of 7.4 to 7.6. A douse at the North mark and another close reach to the East mark and it's one last run to the finish. As we close on the finish we sneak up next to VEGAS and use our momentum to coast over the line just ahead of them as the wind drops to 3 knots with 5 boat lengths to go.

A quick check behind us shows that we finished well ahead of the other J/35 in the fleet.

The crew for this great day of sailing is..
Bill Hewett
Heather Hewett
Dennis Maurer
Jim Schlee
Bob Corzine
Fred Berutti
Eric Hilbert
Denny Hilbert
Robert Gordenker