2026 Spring PHRF 3

Stephen Kidd

By Michael Cardy Tuesday race update: we started off floating with no wind to be seen after a lovely little storm system took it all away. However, the weather gods heard our whining (or wanted to make us work) and it filled in with some solid wind averaging 15kn, but gusts up to 27! We had a reasonable start, though we could have been more aggressive when deciding to head up and ended up in a bit of dirty air. The wind continued to shift and we got lifted to the windward mark, but not quite enough to make it. After rounding the mark, our foredeck crew did an awesome job getting the spinnaker up, not bad for Francis’s first time this season and Gabriel’s first time ever with wind!! We had a bit of trouble getting the spin down on our second lap as we work off the rust in the heavy winds, but recovered quickly! In the shifty winds on the third lap, we just barely made the windward mark and did my least favourite activity of shooting the mark. Foredeck did a great job getting the spin set to launch after rounding the mark but in the chaos we caught the spinnaker in the jib while furling! Quick thinking by the crew got it untangled and we sailed off into the sunset. After the race, Martin got a chance to helm TQ for the first time and did a great job, including finding bifurcation which is always tricky on a windy day.