Two races were scheduled for the final day of racing. Peter Bromby and I were in dire need of at least one a race in order to be able to drop our 54th place finish from the first day. We had hoped to still be in the hunt at this point of the regatta and we were, but we did not have destiny in our own hands. In order to repeat as champions we basically had to win the race and have Merriman/Trinter finish 5th or worse. Other team were also in contention for the championship. The breeze was finally up and measured in the 22 mph range with some gusts probably closer to 30 mph. Thor had answered our prayers in a big way and the race was on.
Our plan was to win the pin, wait for the header, then tack and cross the fleet. It pretty much happened as planned. The Race Committee had picked course number 1 which includes two reaches and a run to finish. It puts a big premium on getting around the top mark in first. We head a 15 second lead and a straight, smooth, undisturbed runway to the reach mark. There were some majestic puffs along the way, but also some patches with a lot less velocity. Pete had both hands on the tiller and I played the vang as best as I could while trying to straight-leg. The result was an adrenaline rush second to non as we opened up a big lead.
We decided to gybe right at the mark, no matter what! Here we go, let's do it! Yes, come on... Perhaps we got lifted slightly at the very gybing moment, that along with a huge puff. I had anticipated a distinctive course change, one where the worse thing that could happen is that we round up. At first everything seemed fine as Pete pulled the mainsheet and boat healing slightly to wheather. I eased the weather backstay about 8 inches, which with most probability caused our mast to break. The boat leaned back to leeward as I had both my hands on the leeward backstay trying to help Pete pull the boom across. The rig was super loaded. We never really considered aborting the maneuver and were now in big trouble. Then there was this crunching, nasty sound as the mast snapped at the spreader. Our dreams had quickly turned into a nightmare and we were both forced to live it. Hell must be quiet, because that's what it was, dead quiet if you will. We were both physically unharmed, but that was the only good news. Not that I cared, I wanted to be dead. I laid my head down in disbelief as negative thoughts were rushing through my brain. How can that be? Did we push it to hard? Not that it matters, but was I at fault? I was in the bottom of the boat for what seemed as an eternity. I was thinking about the Mexican soccer player who was assassinated after scoring in the wrong goal. Then, I finally uncovered my face and was amazed to see the second and third boat just rounding the gybe mark as . I later checked and our lead was approximately two minutes at the time of our disaster.
Our focus changed rather quickly and our priority became to save the sails. We worked frenetically as the boat sailed away on a port reach at a pretty good speed. We rolled the jib up and the was able to pull the bottom section of the mast so that we could be towed back in to port by a crash boat.
Later in the day, after that we had settled down and sorted our gear, Pete and I made an attempt to figure out what went wrong and how our disaster could have been avoided. We both win and lose as a team, so there was no finger pointing. Here is what we concluded:
We had a big enough lead where tacking instead of gybing would have avoided it all for sure.
The first reaching leg was pretty high, therefore the second reach would have been a lot deeper. Subsequently, we didn't have to gybe exactly at the mark. We could have waited until a low and/or gybed on top of a waive.
We did move the stopping knot on the mast pusher before the start to better suite the conditions. I did pull some at the beginning of the reach, but I should have made a concerted effort to "boone" it before the mark rounding.
I did let go about eight inches of the whether back stay as we rolled in to the gybe, but as the ram more than likely wasn't on for this type of trim, the mast inverted and ultimately broke.
Whatever it was, one of the above or a combination thereof, Pete and I went out on top and that makes a big difference to both of us. No regrets when you decide to "go for it" and it doesn't work.
Congratulations to Rick Merriman and Phil Trinter for winning the regatta. Things played in to their hands as the regatta progressed and they well deserved the victory.