Anyway, I entered some more way points into the GPS and I knew this was going to be a long day. The start was again in front of Ostend and we headed towards Nieuwpoort.
Typical for a long distance race is that you don't have normal upwind or downwind runs, most of the time you are reaching. Since we normally race buoys, we aren't that good in reaching and reaching with a 16 feet cat isn't just as easy as it is with a 18 feet version.
However, we had an exciting race at the end of the fleet with 2 other Hobie Tigers. Because we were sailing close to each other, changing positions, we had the exciting race feeling!
All buoys were in place this time so we continued sailing along the Belgian coast. After Nieuwpoort we passed Ostend again and headed for Blankenberge.
After 2 hours and 40 minutes of racing we took in the spin for the last time and gybed in front of Blankenberge, when... our spreader arm went through the jib.
Apparently the mast rotation cleat had unblocked making the mast rotate fully out, while the jib was already in the upwind position...
But there was wind enough and we continued double trapped with just the main sail. Upwind and upstream....
While taking down the jib we had lost a lot of ground on the other boats and we where last in the race, but still wanted to finish it off.
Eventually we finished after 86 kms of sailing in a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes. What a day!
As the only 16 feet boat and mixed crew participating, we'll think again before attending the next MExT regatta... :-)
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