Tina and I had the distinct pleasure of leading first the multihull fleet (after passing Carl's 5.2 in the drifter - thanks for the encouragement, Dude <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) and then the last of the spinnaker monohulls somewhere between Watson Island and Colee Cove. As we took the lead, with no other cats in sight, a couple of escorting committee boats started shouting and waving, urging us on. It was like someone flipped a switch and the breeze started picking up - we had a very nice single-trap spin run all the way to the Shands Bridge - as we went through the bridge I caught sight of Clive's spin-rigged A-Class rounding Wateroak Point. At that point, we were tight reaching and the spray was flying - we were just making Popo Point when our lead ran out and Tina made the save of the day.

As we approached Popo Point, I saw the Roberts' big ARC come through the bridge - I can only imagine what a reach is like on one of those really big cats. Unless something dramatic happened, I knew it was only a matter of time before all that extra beam, sail and waterline passed us. As I was thinking this and savoring the last few minutes of not a single boat in front of us, Tina spoke up.

"Uhhhh, John. We have a problem. Don't look, don't tack." With that, she was off the wire and scrambling leeward where I saw our shroud freely swinging in the breeze! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I sheeted in hard and pinched up into the lee of the Point as Tina worked to re-atttach the StayMaster fitting that I'd forgotten to tape before we launched (dumbass!). Love those StayMasters, though - she was easily able to put it back together and even set it back at the correct tension. A quick wrap of tape on both sides, and we were ready to get back in the game. Eric Roberts had passed us leeward about 75 yards farther out in the river - we'd sailed up too close to the point and the wind was flukey as we passed within a couple feet of the ends of several docks. Tina hooked up and pushed out and I handed her the mainsheet - I'd just hooked up when we got a big puff that rounded us up. Tina lost her footing and was unable to sheet out the main - a PVC pole clipped her, shoving her backward as we passed, and the carbon tiller extension was neatly snapped against the back beam where I'd braced it to hike out. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Now we were close hauled, headed for the finish in second place in very good breeze and we couldn't double-trap! I was stuck on the back beam making a rooster-tail holding the tiller crossbar a la Hobie Wave.

Clive Mayo said later that as he was gaining on us, solidly trapped, he couldn't figure out why we weren't double-trapped in the fresh breeze. He caught us as we worked our way back out into the River and passed Old Bull Bay. That's also when Rob Lyman showed up on Daddio, another of the big ARC boats. He steamed right past us and then right by Clive, too.

As we made Mandarin Point, we fell off a bit and the jib started paying in the reach - we were steadily catching up with Clive again. As we made the turning mark at the Buckman Bridge, he was only a couple of boatlengths ahead, but since the finish line was directly upwind, we were not able to continue closing the gap. In addition, Rich Brew and crew had shown up on another ARC 27, and would have certainly passed us if there'd been another mile or race course left. We crossed the line about 30 seconds behind Clive and only a minute or so ahead of the big orange ARC.

Great day of racing and by far the longest distance I have ever gone - Tina was once again phenomenal as crew and coach. We made all our gains in the light air during the morning hours, gybing in the big knocks and focusing on boatspeed. We were incredibly lucky that the shroud held on through all that gybing, and just as lucky that Tina noticed it before we had to do any other maneuvering. It was great fun working our way through the fleet - we'd paddled to the start line a full two minutes late, but we never looked back after the kite was up.

Thanks, Palatka YC and Rudder Club - logistics are a pain without ground crew, but there were lots of people (Sweetness!) willing to help out. I hope I get to do it again next year.