Capt Trip welcomed Stan and Murph
aboard “Family Knot,” the Gemini 105MC cruising catamaran he and
his family have been cruising around the Chesapeake for 7 years. in irons if the crew is not careful. Each tack
was successful and a bit faster than the tack before it. This good
omen encouraged the captain and crew. Since none of us had raced
together on “Family Knot” it was nice to know we were already
performing as a good team.
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| Stan and CaptMurph crew aboard "Family Knot" |
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| "Family Knot" track for the 2012 Governor's Cup Race |
With the breeze out of the south, it
was a tacking adventure. Although the wind was light at about 8-10
knots at the start, it very slowly yet consistently built until we
were seeing 16-18 knots of breeze by midnight. With the lighter air
at the start we broke out the screecher, a very large, light wind
sail flown off the roller furler forward of the genoa jib. With the
screecher sheeted tight and the mainsail and boom also close hauled
our boat speed through the water gradually and steadily rose from 6
knots until we were barrelling along at over 10 knots of speed
through the water.
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| Stan and Captain Trip |
Our practice tacking before the start
led Stan and Murph to a deadly sense of overconfidence as each crew
suffered the heart wrenching status of stranding “Family Knot” in
irons. Skipper Trip was kind while disappointed in the two tacks,
but his guidance led the crew so that the dreaded event never
occurred again.
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| "Family Knot" underway |
With the stronger breeze the screecher
had to come down, but when we discovered a knot in the furling line,
the routine effort became a serious struggle for Captain Trip as he
knelt at the bow getting doused by the green water as he worked
through the problem. The solution was to just drop the screecher's
halyard and stow the entire sail and furler in a locker until a
better time came to work out the kinks.
Even with the screecher doused, the
water was shooting out of the stern from under both hulls, the sound
loud and exciting, especially after dark, as it reminded me of a fire
hose shooting a steady stream aft. The leeward hull was pressed
deeply into the bay and was shooting a boisterous wake high above the
transom as we flew along our tack.
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| Chesapeake Bay sunset from "Family Knot" |
I was the first of the crew to buckle
under and asked the skipper for a rest. Kindly, Captain Trip sent me
to my bunk below. As I fell into a deep slumber, I could hear Stan
and Trip tack the boat several more times, but the loud rushing seas
gradually grew quieter.
About 3am I woke to Stan suggesting it
was time he got a little shut-eye. Given that I had expected much
less of a nap, I climbed out of the berth as quickly as I could and
wished Stan a good night's rest. Trip was still gamely staying awake
and guiding us through the moonlit night as we ducked freighters,
barges, tugs and fellow racers. Aside from the excitement of a racer
with no nav lights save a single all around white light (usually just
an anchor light) and a tug pushing a barge with a very large, bright
spotlight that obliterated the possibility of seeing his navigation
lights, the crossing went smoothly. And thankfully, all were without
incident.
Just before the sun began to light up
the eastern horizon with its initial glow, Trip raised Stan and
grabbed a little rest on the settee in the main salon. By this time
the breeze had settled back down to a lighter 6-10 knots so our boat
speed also dropped to 4-8 knots. Very good for a sailboat in the
light air, but not nearly as exciting as the 10+ knots of the late
evening before.
Stan and Murph worked “Family Knot”
through a few tacks towards Point Lookout at the mouth of the Potomac
River as Trip gained some well-earned rest. By the time the sun had
cleared the horizon and began heating up the new day, Captain Trip
was also up and ready to tackle the challenge of a light air,
downwind finish.
The final tack to make the turn at
Point Lookout proved successful and our skipper dragged the monstrous
spinnaker from the depths of the sail locker. After a significant
effort as the sheets, guys, halyard and sock were properly led and
deployed, the spinnaker was set free of the enclosing sock and pulled
powerfully on “Family Knot” providing a 3 knot boost to the
declining speed the downwind point of sail was threatening.
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| Captain Trip with his spinnaker flying |
The wind turned flukey as it dropped to
almost nothing with the spinnaker just hanging from the pole, halyard
and sheet, then would pipe up to 15 knots as we blasted underneath a
full and nearly bursting spinnaker. That was the experience as
“Family Knot” caught up to a struggling monohull trying to make
their spinnaker fly properly. The pièce de résistance
came as we caught a satisfying puff that seemed to leave the monohull
grounded as “Family Knot” raced by under full spinnaker.
Although the beams of the two vessels were only 75 feet abreast of
each other the wind was clearly favoring Trip, Stan and Murph.
The gun sounded as “Family Knot”
cleared the finish at the tall ship serving as the committee boat and
the race was over. As Stan said, “We hit nothing larger than us
and we finished.” In other words, it was a highly successful race.
And we enjoyed the grand finish of blasting by another boat just
before crossing the finish line.
