Moving to Houston, Last Race on the Lake

Well, Otra Vez is moving to Houston. Literally, as I am typing she is moving down the ICW between New Orleans and Galveston Bay. Her new home (at least temporarily) will be in the Kemah Boardwalk Marina, slip H21.

We completed our last two races on Saturday. I have learned 99% of what little I know about racing from the members of the Pontchartrain Yacht Club and have to give Dave Bolyard from West Wind sails some special thanks. It was fitting that the last race was the best, with Otra Vez, winning handily over some well crewed sport boats (Melges 24, Antrim 27) and some fast local boats like the Evelyn 32 and Wavelength 24.

Leukemia Cup 2006

We participated in the 2006 Leukemia Cup, which consisted of a 20nm pursuit race on March 25th on the Northshore, and then 2 days of W/L on April 1st and 2nd off the Southern Yacht Club on the Southshore. We had a tough time on the pursuit race. We had 20 knots upwind and with only 4 adult crew not enough weight on the rail to keep the boat flat. Too much heel equals leeway and SLOW. Learned some more about how to keep the boat moving (or not in this case). We had the #2(140%) up and the traveler down. Bad combination. Should have used the #3 and flattened the main by bottoming out the backstay.

For the w/l we finished in a tie for 4th. We had 4 new crew on board and our normal bowman was not available so it made for some interesting roundings. All in all, we had a great time and raised money for an excellent cause. After 4 weekends of racing we are getting dialed in when the winds are light but we need to practice extensively above 15 true both for boathandling and boatspeed.

We also discovered that in the battle between a carbon fiber spinnaker pole and someones forehead, the pole wins. Nothing serious, but a little blood was spilled.

Bill