Finally!

It’s been a long, long, two years getting Opus to the starting line, but she’s finally competed in her first two races. Tuesday night, she raced in a local club race. Came in last in our division, but that’s not the point. The point was to take a crew that has never sailed on Opus before, most of whom have never sailed on a big boat before, and at least one who has actually never sailed before, and get us out on the water and moving the boat around the course.
The course had a time limit of 2 hours to complete, and we came in under the the time limit. While not a goal, it was very much appreciated. We’ll be concentrating on improvement now rather than our place in the standings. If we improve faster than the other teams, we’ll start moving up the ranks. We’re in it for the long haul, though I admit a win now and then would be nice.

This past Saturday was her second race. This was just a fun, semi-informal, race with pick-up crews consisting of race start at Bedwell Harbour, down around Gooch Island and back to Bedwell Harbour. It was interesting as the lead kept changing, which makes for a fun race. A race where the leaders run away from everyone isn’t interesting… unless it’s us running away from everyone. That would be interesting. To me, at least. In the end, it was Runaway in first, Opus in second, Scherzando in third, and Bacca Lele in fourth (or maybe Baca in third and Scherzando in fourth?)

The best part was that we got to fly Opus’ symmetric spinnaker for the very first time. It was glorious.

For those who know Spinnakers, I KNOW those sheets are too tight and the sail should be further out in front. It just felt good that it was up and inflated at all!

Picture of Navionics showing us across the finish line and making 7.6 knots
Crossing the finish line

Navionics used as evidence of our finish time – blasting over the finish line at 7.6 knots

Helming across the finish line with radio in hand to report the finish…

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