8:07 PM Thu 1 Oct 2009 GMT
This is the fourth year for me in the Lake Ontario 300 and while each year, our performance has improved,?the desire to return and do it again has not. In 2007 and 2008 as soon as the race was over, the first words out of my mouth were, 'Great race. If I even think about doing this again, please take a gun and shoot me.'
But not this year.
The 2009 LO300 was about as much fun as you can have in a long distance race. And that's not to say that we were dancing on the deck like Samantha Davies. No time?for that, the competition was too fierce.
The race set new attendance records this year and as usual the 170 boats?were split into various fleets and divisions. Gizmo, our Bombardier 7.6 was racing in the double-handed long course around Main Duck Island against eight other boats in Division 3. One of these boats, Emerald, an Elvstrom 1/2 ton had won the overall title two years ago?on corrected time, which is an incredible accomplishment. Last year we managed to beat Emerald in our division so when I discussed our goals for this year with Marc, the plan was simple, we are going for the 'overall'. If Emerald can do it, and we can beat Emerald, then ipso-facto, we should be able to win this thing ourselves.? Marc just laughed, 'sure Dad, whatever'.
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In the weeks leading up to the race I was growing increasingly tense and nervous. My stomach was in knots and acid indigestion was my constant companion. Last year's race had not been fun. From the moment we crossed the start line it had been hard bloody work combined with insomnia and hallucinations and my body was rebelling at the idea of torturing myself for three plus days again this year.
Significant changes were?made to Gizmo to prepare for this year's race. First, a brand new set of sails (with the exception of the spinnaker). The furling gear was replaced with a foil luff and in the months leading up to the race we had had to learn how to peel headsails and manage the sail inventory.
Not easy on such a tiny deck and a continuing challenge during the race. Secondly, we had a custom made lee-cloth installed in the port berth so that it would be possible to lie down?to sleep when on a port tack. Last year we had to try to sleep sitting up when on port and surprise, it didn't work. Adding J-24 style 'tweaks' to help with spinnaker control was probably the best investment we made for the least money. Lastly, I bought some water containers, which we filled and froze before the race started so that our food wouldn't get soaked like it did last year when the ice melted in our cooler.
With modifications complete and tested, we were ready; nervous, but ready.
The weather conditions were shaping up to be 50/50. The first half of the race was to be a downwind sleigh-ride and the second half was forecast to be a no-wind nightmare. We knew we had to get as far as we could as fast as we could in the first two days if we were to avoid going insane when the wind disappeared.
Race day started off just like forecast. All boats were able to hoist their spinnakers and cross the line under full flying sails. What a site! ?We were in one of the early starts so we had the pleasure of viewing the fleet in all its colourful glory for many hours as we crossed the top of the lake. What surprised us as the day wore on was that the fleet was taking a hellova lotta time to catch up.
Gizmo was flying! By the time?we reached Toronto Island, Gizmo was starting to plane. The rudder would hum as the speeds increased and from Toronto to Kingston the hum never stopped. This doesn't mean that we were taking off on anyone. Just to keep us honest and humble, Emerald, and Ariadna were always close by.
However as the day turned into night and the wind and waves built even higher, Gizmo was regularly surfing at 10-11 knots. If a boat can have a personality then for sure, Gizmo was smiling.
She loved these conditions. We saw many boats broaching and struggling to maintain control, but Gizmo just kept on going. We thought for sure there was no way our old spinnaker would last but it held on for the whole race, no problem.
Two of our closest competitors were not so lucky. During the night, Ariadna, a Hunter 31 suffered a broach that was severe enough to cause the spinnaker pole to bend in half when it hit the water. Any racing with a spinnaker from that point onward would be with a boat hook. Harrier, a Tartan 30 managed to wrap the spinnaker so tightly around the fore-stay that they continued on under main-only until dawn when they went up the mast and cut the sail off the forestay before they could hoist another sail.
And to think that we are basically sailing single-handed in these conditions. Our general plan was to switch every three or four hours and for the most part that is what we did. Finally this year, I have figured out how to sleep while under way. The magic combination for me is earplugs, a?not too exciting?book and just a 'wee dram' of scotch before I hit the sack. Worked like a charm. Pretty surreal though to be regularly surfing at 10 knots and find yourself saying 'I think I'll go to bed now'.
We passed the Main Duck Island lighthouse at 7:30 am on Sunday. I think it was 10:30 pm when we passed it last year. Wow. And just like last year, Emerald was right there beside us. We had stolen a victory from her last year and she was not about to give us one inch that she didn't have to. This is racing at its best, to be side by side, hour after hour. What a test of stamina, willpower and determination. We were loving it.
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All the fun of the previous day was about to change as we headed from east to south. The waves and winds that had given us such a great sleigh ride now became a pounding gut-wrenching mess. Marc and I continue to disagree about how much sail Gizmo can carry and we rounded the island with the #2 and full mainsail. We were overpowered in?no time and I scrambled forward to hoist the #3.?
The waves were between 5 -10 feet and even with a double-reefed main we were heeled over at 20-25 degrees so you can imagine what changing a headsail would?be like in these conditions. To make matters worse the? #1 was already lashed to the deck?where it had?remained unused since the start of the race.
There was precious little deck space to store a second sail and hoist a third.??I no sooner had the #3 hoisted and had worked my way?exhausted back to the cockpit when Marc yells, 'the jib!' I didn't?know what he was talking about at first but quickly saw that?the #1 had come loose of its lashings and was being dragged under the?webbing and into the lake.
I scrambled back to the foredeck to pull the sail back on board before we lost it altogether. Yelling at Marc to head-up and flatten the boat so I could work (please) was useless. 'Were racing Dad, try harder!' At one point I slipped over the toe rail and found myself up to my waist in the water still holding onto the sail with one hand while trying to drag myself back onto the deck with the other. Don't ask me how I did it but I managed to get everything back on deck and into the cabin.
The sails were everywhere. I couldn't even get into the cabin so once I had rested for a bit, I told Marc I was going to try and organize the sails from inside. I didn't have a choice as I had to use the head. Big mistake. Marc and I were both wearing a 'patch' to prevent seasickness but there is only so-much drugs can do and this was asking too much. After half an hour down below struggling with sails and waves, it was obvious I was not going to win this battle.
I tried to take a nap?in the hope I could sleep it off but no luck and half way to Oswego?I was feeding the fish wondering what the hell I was thinking when I agreed to do this race yet again. After that I still had to use the head.
The good news is the head was on the low side. The bad news is it was like riding a Brahma bull with a porta-potti mounted on the saddle and during one particularly violent lurch, the toilet broke partly free of its mount with me sitting on top. It was only by the grace of God that I didn't end up with the toilet on top of me. Are we having fun yet?
In the meantime, Emerald just took off. She is a heavy boat with a comparatively small sail plan and just loves these conditions. We considered ourselves lucky that we would only have to endure this mayhem for a relatively short time (about five hours).
Amazingly, and thanks in part to Marc's insistence that we weren't stopping to retrieve sails (so deal with it Dad), we rounded Ford Shoal in close proximity to Emerald and started heading west. The winds had diminished somewhat and we were able to sail along the south shore in reasonable comfort.
The worst was behind us. Our break from Emerald came in the early evening as the winds went light. We were half way between Sodus Point and Rochester and Emerald was ahead and slowing down. In light winds, Gizmo will continue to ghost along where heavier boats will stop dead. This is exactly what happened. We gently drifted past Emerald just before nightfall and as the sky grew dark she disappeared from sight behind us and we never saw her again for the rest of the race.
Marc made the decision during his watch to hug the shoreline looking for 'land breezes' and this paid huge dividends for us. When the sun came up in the morning we found ourselves tacking in front of 'Folichon', a very competitive C&C 34. We were amazed. Either we had done real well or Folichon had done real badly and the crew on Folichon are not in the habit of screwing up. Nevertheless, our arrival on the scene acted as a wake-up alarm for Folichon and by the time we reached the Niagara mark, they were a good 1.5 hours ahead of us again.
While we weren't racing side by side with Emerald anymore, we were well behind two other members of our division, 'Les' and 'Ramble On'. We knew we would have to keep our speed up on the last leg to correct ahead of these boats. We rounded Niagara at 4:30 pm on Monday and in a time honoured tradition, drank a 'Red-Bull' to get us through the last leg. No one was sleeping now.
At first, everything was going well. There was hope. We were flying the spinnaker making 6.5 knots. A division win was within our reach. I started talking about the possibility and Marc kept telling me to shut-up and not jinx our chances. And sure enough, with each passing mile, the winds started to lighten and the ETA on the GPS started to increase.
The conversations were swinging wildly between 'we're screwed' and 'we still have a chance' until we reached the five mile mark and the wind all but disappeared. Gizmo could still ghost along but we assumed that Les and Ramble On had finished ahead of the wind exodus so their positions were firmly guaranteed. When we hit the one mile mark, the wind died completely. Completely!
And for the next 90 minutes we stared at the flashing light mounted on the?finish mark while other boats drifted into the dead zone with us. One boat actually drifted past us and then started their motor! What would possess someone to start the bloody engine with only a mile to go? In the total calm that surrounded us, I was actually choking on the fumes. Could it be that he was counting on the exhaust to nudge the boat forward?
Another boat entering the zone stopped near us and decided it was party time. While we were going mental trying to make the boat move, there was music, singing, and drinking going on right beside us. We tried everything we could to will the boat forward. Every headsail we had on board was hoisted up the mast at least once and in some cases three times. The frustrated bickering increased between us and the crossover to total insanity became imminent when the VHF announced that Ariadna and Harrier were approaching the five-mile finish zone. After all this was our competition going to slip past us within site of the finish line?
Finally a whisper of wind ghosted us across the finish line at 23.55.51 Monday night. The boat looked like it had been vandalized. Sails and lines were everywhere. Our greatest battle had been fought in the most benign conditions. In spite of our frustration, we congratulated each other on a job well done. We did a quick review and decided there was nothing we would have changed and were satisfied that we had done the best we could.
Those who followed our track online saw that we had crossed the line in third place in our division and like ourselves, assumed that would be the final outcome as well. When I returned to Gizmo in the morning to clean up the mess (Marc had stayed home and had no plans to get up before noon) the preliminary results were posted.
The crew from Folichon were having breakfast and Ian and Marilea McAllister let me know that we had won! Ian and Marilea are wonderful people who love a good-natured joke so I assumed they were yanking my chain and told them so.
Turns out they weren't. Gizmo?had not only won her division but upon closer scrutiny, had won double-handed overall on corrected time. I was overwhelmed and when I called Marc to let him know ('sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep but..') I could?hear his whoop of delight all the way from Etobicoke without the need for the phone.
The planets seemed to be have been squarely aligned above Gizmo this year and she performed like a greyhound.
To be fair,?Rampage, a Concordia 47?was the greyhound and by comparison,?little Gizmo was?like a Chihuahua on steroids. Rampage, with her crew of twelve?set a blistering new course record of 1 day and 19 hours so it was natural for us to assume that she would earn the spinnaker-fleet title.
Remarkably however and with many thanks to the wizardry of the PHRF mathematicians, Gizmo ended up first overall! What a great race, what a great experience and what a great little boat.
Sailboat racing has got to be the greatest sport on the planet. How many sports are there in this world where you can compete at such an intense level alongside your own children?
Some will argue that it was good luck that we did so well and this may be true, but as the saying goes, 'the harder you work, the luckier you get'. Winning the race was fantastic. Winning the race with my son was beyond words. I am lucky indeed.
Full results for 2009 Lake Ontario 300 here
The 2009 Lake Ontario 300 presented by Bell Blackberry Awards Banquet is coming soon - A great evening to celebrate the greatest race on the lake and a record breaking year in so many ways.
Click here for details
by Ric Doedens
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