After the rain squall, the wind picked up into the low 20’s, and got really puffy/gusty. I really struggled to get under way at the start, and the struggles didn’t stop. My friend Marti who lent me her boat warned me about shifty winds on Tampa Bay, which will tack you without warning. Well she was right. On the first such tack, I prevented a capsize only by throwing myself overboard. The second time, I was able to grab the upper gunwale and pull myself to the new windward side. I was using a regular rig (not Jens), feathering the sail, bearing-off, and it was a total grind. Several boats that started elected to retire mid race, and the field continued to dwindle in subsequent races. I tried the Jens rig for race 3, but it didn’t really help me. With the rig sliding down, and approaching the deck (such that a good crash into a wave would crash the lower spar through the deck), I elected to retire after race 3.
After the rain squall, the wind picked up into the low 20’s, and got really puffy/gusty. I really struggled to get under way at the start, and the struggles didn’t stop. My friend Marti who lent me her boat warned me about shifty winds on Tampa Bay, which will tack you without warning. Well she was right. On the first such tack, I prevented a capsize only by throwing myself overboard. The second time, I was able to grab the upper gunwale and pull myself to the new windward side. I was using a regular rig (not Jens), feathering the sail, bearing-off, and it was a total grind. Several boats that started elected to retire mid race, and the field continued to dwindle in subsequent races. I tried the Jens rig for race 3, but it didn’t really help me. With the rig sliding down, and approaching the deck (such that a good crash into a wave would crash the lower spar through the deck), I elected to retire after race 3.