2026 Spring JAM 3

Stephen Kidd

Race Report Thursday, June 18 Spring JAM 3 If you weren't crewing, you missed the fun! At times pelting rain, driven by 25-30-knot gusts. Otherwise the wind averaged about 18 knots. Needless to say, double reef, but with full jib. We were doing 5.5 knots upwind and 7.1 knots downwind at times. W-course twice around. If you join the web version of Sail Ties you can see the course we sailed and the stats. We had two hiccups. One was at the start where we had to do a 360, but I'm not fully clear why and am waiting to hear back from Henri of Ulysses. He apparently called out something I didn't hear and then waved a red protest flag at me. So we did a 360. Imagine TQ, just tacked, healed over, trying to make the pin, pushing another windward boat up, and water running down my glasses. At such a moment I wished I had contacts! 😄 The other was right after we shot the windward mark first time around, we hit the offset mark. I underestimated the leeway caused by the current and the high wind. There was a great moment with Mardi Gras: We almost had MG as we were stand-on vessel approaching the windward mark. But she managed to sail in front of us on port. If I were her, I would have bow-tacked us and given us dirty air. Instead, she tacked above us and, losing momentum we sailed past to her lee, and were then able to point higher and get right in front of her, giving her our dirty air. She went below in our shadow and we stayed ahead. But then, Captain Kidd made a fatal mistake. We should have gybed around the offset mark, but I wanted to stay above MG and went way too far out, distracted by the wind and, well, you know. In the end we had to gybe left to make it around the pin. Sigh. Jeff, Iggy and Martin were awesome. It was quite a physical workout, and for me on the helm, more a mental one. I had gone to the crew tent to find more crew but no luck. We were pleasantly surprised, though, that four of us could manage the boat alright in those winds. Lessons learned: The 360s were costly, as they always are. But I learned from Greg D, watching Pretender do one, that you don't need to let the jib go when you tack. Just let it back wind and, as you come around to where you were, it's ready to go. We need to remind ourselves of winching techniques and how to avoid overrides. Not getting the jib in quickly costs minutes or even precious seconds. But it's not easy in those winds. The jib also got caught once on the mast ring. Especially without a dedicated foredeck crew, we might want to try keeping the whisker pole attached to the ring, like we do with the spinnaker pole, so the sheet glides over it. What a night!