Erik D. Jones's Blog

Here I am with my crewmate, Alastair, waiting for the wind that would never come.  We were able to start the Three Bridges Fiasco albeit an hour past our designated starting time as we found ourselves on the “wrong” side of the buoy you see in the picture.  On our approach to the start, we pulled a nice 6 knots with the 135% headsail up on a nice reach from Berkeley.  Unfortunately the wind died and then clocked 360 degrees around.  As you can see from the picture, even the large trimaran off our stern had a limp spinnaker. 

What have I learned?  That although I had it in my mind that I would decide which direction to travel the course and sail through the start in the last 5 minutes, I was too fixated on how the wind was blowing on the way over.  So by the time we got there, we were committed to a bad entry.  Oh well.  It was my first swag at racing.  Sizzle (also known as sail number 38025) will get a few more chances this season! 

On Saturday January 31st, I will be embarking on a new journey.  It will be a test of leadership, strength and skill.  It is a doublehanded sailboat race!  I’m hoping that my sailing buddy, Alastair, will be able to join me as crew, otherwise I’ll be on a mad hunt for my crewmember to accompany me on this race.

This will be Sizzle’s first race.  I have applied for racing numbers and a Performance Handicap Racing Committee (PHRC) rating for my boat.  The sailmaker is working on adapting my two large sails for the new roller furler I had installed this summer and will affix my sail numbers to my main sail once I get my assignment.  I’ve wanted to try out racing and it looks like I’m going to go into it feet first!  They’re expecting up to 300 boats to enter the 3 Bridges race!!  More details to come!