Adventures on Juliet: Juliet's first race

Saturday was our first time racing Juliet! We entered her in the Channel Islands Yacht Club's annual Port Royale Regatta, which is a competition that actually involved multiple short races. There were only 7 boats racing - 4 in the J-boat class, and 3 in the PHRF Spinnaker class (we were the 2nd class). So that meant, no matter what, as long as we finished we'd get third place!

Our race crew consisted of skipper Charlie, first mate LeeAnne, crew members Shelly and Larry (experienced racers), and ship mascot Bubba. I should mention that Juliet is by no means a racing boat...she was designed for cruising, and with her heavy full keel and short waterline, tends to be rather slow, so we had no aspirations about winning...this was just for fun and sailing experience.

We were rather disappointed, however, when it turned out to be about the worst possible racing conditions for a heavy boat like Juliet. There was NO WIND! It was overcast and drizzly when we left the slip, and while the drizzle did stop, the sun never came out. The first race started at noon, and we had an excellent start, right up against Fusee, our friend Harry Krum's boat. We tacked almost immediately, and in light variable winds we began building up speed as we headed towards the mark, and watched Fusee and Magic Dragon (the other boat in our class) pull further ahead of us...not unexpectedly, of course. Then, as we watched Fusee and Magic Dragon round the mark, the winds just...DIED! I mean DEAD! All the other boats raised their spinnakers, but even they couldn't catch a puff...they just hung there like deflated balloons. We sat...and bobbed...and eventually drifted to the mark, able to get enough light puffs to round her, and then...bobbed some more.

All the other boats were able to crawl their way to the finish, but Juliet is just too heavy to move in that light air. When we saw that the rest of the fleet had crossed the finish line, and we were moving at about a 1/2 knot with a good mile to go, we gave up and radio'd the committee boat to DNF. We didn't want them to have to wait for us to start the next race.

The second race started shortly thereafter, and the wind did seem to be picking up a bit. We had another good start, this time continuing on our starboard tack for a longer distance before we tacked to port, putting us on a direct rumline for the mark, and on a better course than our competition. We made it to the mark and rounded it, but then again...the wind died. Again all the lighter, faster boats made it in, while we bobbed along at a 1/2 knot. Given the conditions, the race committee decided not to hold the third race, so we didn't feel the pressure to do another courtesy DNF, so we persevered to finish, which we eventually did.

While this was a slow-motion race, it was a lot of fun sailing with Shelly and Larry, and we had some good laughs. It was also an excellent learning experience, as we are still figuring out the ins and outs and quirks of Juliet. And, since we did in fact finish the second race, we were awarded the third-place trophy for our class!