Last Thursday June 11 was the much-awaited first race (not counting prior Saturday’s Leukemia Cup) of the Downtown Sailing Series.  Four of us met at the boat just before 6 PM and got out there for a 7 PM start.

There were lots of boats.  I had no idea how many there would be.

Lessons learned:

1. Sail in the racing class — cruising class boats don’t make logical racing decisions and end up in terrible dangerous floating clumps near the marks.
2. Pasargada does pretty well in light air.  Pasargada feels pretty comfy in heavy air.
3. Starting in light air does not mean finishing in light air.
4. Not everyone knows that you are not supposed to fly the USA flag while racing.  Good thing none of our ex-boy scout friends were on board.
5. As cool as it may seem, three guys in sombreros drinking Rainier are not really emblematic of the race.  But they were there nonetheless
6. Sailors will gobble those hot dogs fast and the drawing starts really early after racing is done.  Go back for additional beer and details of putting the boat away later.  Party first.  Last bits of work later.

Thoughts about next time:

• Put up the bigger genoa or stay with the jib?  Well, until we try out the racing class and are sure we will do well enough with keeping clear, we should keep using the jib because the foot is pretty high which gives good visibility under and around.
• Start line changes?  They really do start at 7:00 for racing and 7:05 for cruising.  So be there.  If you do cruising and you don’t start first you can get stuck way at the back trying to avoid that pack while still sailing to make the next mark.
• We will have two ladies repeating on crew plus the race-registered Skipper’s brother and a fine lady who has sailed with us before so we’ll have to see how this Thursday day goes with six people.