Governor's Cup Race on “Family Knot”, August 3-4, 2012

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.

Stan and CaptMurph crew aboard "Family Knot"

We motored out to the bay beyond the starting line to practice a few tacks. This was important as tacking a catamaran can be tricky as the widely separated hulls can easily get caught

"Family Knot" track for the 2012 Governor's Cup Race

The start was very smooth with no close encounters of the bumping kind and we were ahead of a couple boats and only a few yards behind most of our class, Multihull B. You can see some really cool tracking of the race, including “Family Knot” due to the GPS unit every boat had on board for this race. You can follow the details at this website: http://www.smcm.edu/govcup/.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.