Harvest Moon Regatta
2012
It seems
like this has been the year of the “J” boat for me. After putting well over 2000 nautical miles
on a J-125 on the West Coast, I made my annual trip to the Gulf Coast of Texas.
The annual Harvest Moon Regatta on James
Linton’s J-120 ‘Aeolus’ was next up on my calendar. This was to be the third year doing the race
for me and we were really hoping to improve on our second place finish (third
overall) in last years event.
The wind
forecast was light and on the nose for the first few hours with a slight shift
to the southeast coming later in the day.
We started well and extended out in front of the other boats with the
exception of the Melges 30 and the Santa Cruz 50. Our new Carbon 155% Genoa gave us the power we
needed to keep the 120 moving in the light stuff and in touch with both of the
mentioned boats that were just in front of us.
We had some difficulty navigating through the slower non-spinnaker boats
but eventually made it through and were now eagerly anticipating the
shift. This shift finally came in the
late afternoon and we immediately hoisted our Code 0 and were now plugging
along just shy of wind speed. The J-120
sails great with a Code 0 and we started to extend on the boats around us. We managed to pull some important distance on
the J-44 who took up a little higher course than us and managed to overtake
after a few hours of close-hauled genoa sailing. Once the Code 0 went up this all
changed.
We spent
most of the night dodging unlit oil platforms that litter the Gulf Coast. Weather was warm and the sky was lit with
stars and a beautiful moon that helped shine some light on a racecourse that
was not easy to navigate. As the night
wore on the wind died, which was expected, we found ourselves with the genoa
back up. This is not optimal for the 120
and I knew the Melges 30 was winning out in these conditions.
As daylight
approached we could see the front coming towards us and knew the big shift and
more wind was close. What I don’t think
we anticipated was how much wind we would see.
At right around 6am we tacked onto starboard as the cloud and front were
now directly above us. I heard Steve
Lemay call for the tack and I came up on deck and grabbed the mainsheet. Just as this happened the puff came on and we
started easing as the boat started moving.
In a matter of 5 minutes it was blowing 18… GAME ON!
We jib
reached for a bit as the wind settled down and soon we were looking at 25+kts
of breeze and a 120 TWA. Now this is
what a J-120 is made for and this is where it gets good. I demand the 3A on deck and after some
convincing (border-line arguing) with the owner I got my way. 3A up and we were launched! Now I am used to driving a J-125 in this so I
was not expecting too much in the way of speed.
I seriously underestimated the power of the 120 and was having a blast
driving down waves.
The wind
kept increasing and we were now seeing steady high 20’s with puffs of 30. The boat was a dream to sail and the 3A
allowed us to go as low as 150 TWA without it hiding behind the main and
collapsing. This spinnaker kept the boat
tracking and was easy to drive with. We
were on the rail now and headed right at the Port Aransas turning buoy that would
put us into the ship channel and a small upwind leg to the finish. I started to push the boat and was soon
seeing constant 15’s and a top speed of 18.9.
The boat was sustaining 17’s for extended periods of times and we were
never out of control. I stayed on the
helm for the last 40 miles and the crew worked their butts off to keep us
moving as fast as possible. The J-44 was
now out of sight and it was a race against time.
We rounded
the buoy with the #3 up and made our way to a late morning finish only about 30
minutes behind the SC-50… not bad! Port
Aransas is a unique little town and has something to offer in the way of
seafood and Bud Light. It was now a
waiting game as we sucked back a few cold ones.
Much to my chagrin I looked up 45 minutes later to see a Hobie 33 come
cruising into the harbor. The Hobie 33
in Texas rates 96!!!! That might be a
little friendly but they did end up overall winners even though they never even
hoisted a spinnaker!
When
results were posted we found out we finished second in class only to lose out
to another J-Boat… a J-105! This was my
third year doing the race and it has been getting better and better. The unpredictable wind and drag race down the
coast makes for some serious fun!
Check out
the short video
here of us cruising with the 3A up.
This is after the big puffs but we are still rocking it!
Keith Magnussen
Ullman Sails Newport Beach
