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We joined the Dartmouth Yacht Club about 12 months ago and its amazing how many great people we have met in that short of time. I had asked about the Bean Crock in the spring when I saw it advertized in one of the club FYI's. The race was open to the local clubs and consisted of a big upwind leg into the Harbour and a down wind run back home followed by a get together at the club. So plans were made with seven of our new friends to meet at the boat on Saturday morning and give this race a go:) I kept an eye on the weather as the weekend got closer and it looked like we would have a nice breeze. Friday evening the marine forecast issued a small craft warning for the next day, uh ok. WE could hear the wind picking up through out the night and by the time we woke up on Saturday morning it was blowing a good 20 knots consistently. I was on the go early registration was at 0900, skipper's meeting at 1100 and the start gun at 1200 just in time for the wind to really pick up. Some boats decided that conditions were a bit to exciting and withdrew while other less wise skippers (me) decided to hang in. By 1130 everyone was on board and we were ready to make our way out to the starting line. I forgot to mention that I decided to bring the boat in to the marina last night and now we had 25 knots on our nose at the dock. The slip that I was on had a known shoal about 100' straight off the end so as soon as you clear the slip an immediate turn to Starboard is required or you end up on the rocks:( With engine roaring, the bow thruster pushing, me steering hard to starboard and lot of helpful people fending us off the dock we shot out of that slip like we were on fire, whew. Everyone on the boat seemed pretty relaxed considering the windy conditions (was I the only nervous one?). Once we cleared the breakwater we unfurled a deeply reefed main, wow when the wind hit that main, oh boy it was windy and we heeling about 30 degrees. It wasn't too bad once we got a bit organized and we started easing the main etc... So now there are quite a few boats out tacking around with reefed sails and limited maneuverability with strength of the wind, wow this is getting exciting. I,me not sure if I am liking this start thing with boats tacking all around us after a few close calls and and witnessing a couple of our competitors getting too close we were finally across the line, a few minutes late but in one piece. Tom had suggested earlier that we get a bit of genoa unfurled so with a reefed main and reefed 135 we were off:0) The wind wasn't directly out of the SW but we did have to do a bit of tacking to get under the bridges. It was pretty exciting tacking in that wind which was now blowing at 30 knots, Rose Lee is 14' wide and it seems like a long way across watching Glenn, Tony and Rob climb up to the high side each time we tacked. It wasn't too long before we started catching up to the fleet, thank goodness for waterline length. Rose Lee was really moving along as we passed under the bridges, I think we had the right amount of sail out as we weren't too overpowered. We even did a jibe in this wind with no boom brake, however it went well my crew was on their A game:). After a very windy upwind run we had finally reached our upwind mark off Halifax and it was time to turn begin our beam reach home. Their was a Jeanneau 27 trying to get to the mark so we backed off and gave them room since the wind was making their life difficult. Joyce made a great video of us overtaking the Jeanneau after we passed the mark, at this point Rose Lee was trucking along at just under 10 knots, great fun and the wind was picking up. Check out our YouTube channel with the link at the top and go to bean crock videos. They say that gentlemen never go to weather and I can see why what a nice downwind run. Tom and Les were on the mainsheet and Genoa and Mary was calling the gustsed as we were about to be hit. Excellent crew work kept us going very fast all the way back to Navy Island just off the Marina. So now it was decision time we ae on a port tack and have to make a right hand turn for the finish line jibe or come about. Jibing definitely would have been quicker but the wind was now up to 35 knot's and we had unfurled the genoa for the downwind run so we now had the full 135 out. I made the call to come about since we were just in it for fun and I didnt want to have any damage at this point less than a mile from the line. We did a big wild turn wow that wind was blowing, as we were turning I saw a black something about 8" in diameter fly by and hit the water 30' behind the boat (hope it wasn't anything important). I found out later that the object was my combination steaming and foredeck light that got ripped off by a spare halyard in the wind. With our turn made we crossed the line and furled the sails in the lee of Navy Island where the wind was still in the high 20's, whew! The plan at this point was to attempt to go back into the slip, as skipper I should have vetoed this and grabbed our regular mooring, however over confidence will get you every time. When I got in the fairway I attempted to turn Rose Lee into the wind and make my approach on the slip in reverse. With the bow thruster and limited room I could only get the boat about 45 degrees to the wind so I tried a 360 in the opposite direction and used our momentum to get the boat around and up into the wind, however my approach into the slip was off so we aborted and tried going bow in. I had a pretty good approach but with the wind I didn't have enough control to feel that I could safely get her in without damage, abort, abort, lets grab our mooring, whew am I glad that's over. We had some great eats and refreshments once we were secured at the mooring special thanks from Joyce an I to our fantastic crew Tom, Les, Tony, Sharon, Mary, Donna, Glenn and Rob who made this such a great day:) We went in to the club a bit later for a nice steak BBQ and were surprised to find out we came 4th on corrected time, awesome! It was great to see how Rose Lee performed in winds that Joyce and I would never normally go out in all in all a great experience.
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