Mike Teets Account of the Green Island Race

Typical for this time of year, I didn't have time to do the Green Island Race.  I had just returned from Europe on business and my boat was in getting some gelcoat work done.  I picked the boat up on Friday but between my jetlag and my son's Friday night halftime band show, I didn't think it was advisable to make the early Saturday trip under the gun.  The extreme wind forecast also was a deterrent.  I did plan to make the Sunday trip for the distance race.  I confirmed with the race organizers that it was possible to enter just that portion and planned for the trip north.

I got up at 5am, tried to get out early but didn't actually get on the road with a full tank of gas until 5:45.   The trip up was uneventful except for an ominous downpour just before I hit route 2 to go west to Port Clinton. Luckily it was a short shower and seemed to stay south of the lake.  I pulled into the lot at around 8am.  I knew I was in trouble when there were folks putting on their wetsuits as I was parking.  I pulled off a quick setup, donned the drysuit, turned on my GPS and radio and headed for the beach.   About 20 yards off shore, I realized I didn't put my dagger boards on the boat.  Back to the beach.  Diane Roten was standing on the beach and ran up to get them out of my sailbox.  Thanks Diane!  Now off to the start.

I had made to the start line with just 6 minutes to spare.  I maneuvered for and took the pin end of the start on port as everyone was preparing for a port pin start.  Jamie Diamond footed past in pre-start and yelled "You can have it"... not wanting to get into a start battle with his boardless Mystere against my boarded F17 uni.  9:20 - Start gun goes off. Unfortunately, I thought we were heading to Starve buoy first so I footed right for the layline... I set my coarse, jockeyed the traveler and sheet into a good trim from the wire.  Boom!  Not paying attention to the waves, I found myself quickly upended and did a trapeze 180 with my head hitting the hull first.  With a streak of luck, I found myself back on my feet on the hull.  Stunned I came in off the wire to check that everything was ok. I was fine. I jump back on the wire.  Now I noticed that everyone was pinching higher so I asked the Hobie 18 crew to leeward about the course.  It was Green Island first so I hit a quick reverse course on my GPS, took a heading and was off.

The wind was between 10 and 15 for most of the upwind leg to the Green Island buoy.  I was on the trap, airborne on about every 4th wave, pumping the sheet on each wave trying to keep the windward hull just above the water.  There were a few flat sections of water.  I worried that these flat spots might have been shallow spots!  I looked for standing seagulls and pressed on and found no shallows.  This was a very tiring but exhilarating ride though the Lake Erie washing machine!  My upwind average turned out to be just about 11 mph.

I rounded the first mark to starboard and headed east between Green and South Bass Island.  The water flattened considerably and the wind dropped in the lee of the islands. I was able to find the grove with the chute up.  I was making great time now.  A new problem.  I am single handing, with the chute in one hand, main and tiller in the other.  I need to get my GPS out of my pocket and find Starve Island buoy.  I sit on the spinnaker sheet and pull it off without incident but do loose some time being conservative.  I heat it back up and get to Starve buoy in 5 gybes.  My average speed was just short of 13 for this leg.

I douse the chute and set my heading on the last leg.  I tried to go out on the wire for the beam reach but the waves were exactly at 90 degrees to the boat.  My trap was set too low for these conditions and my shoulders would hit the approaching wave before the bow started to climb.  After about 10 teabags, I decided to play it safe and stay in.  I played the sheet and traveler constantly as I passed the Catawba can and continued toward the finish.  I crossed the finish at around 11:13 AM.  Boom!  This time a good boom... first to finish.  My average speed for this leg was a surprising 14.5 mph.

Thanks to the organizers, especially those who had to sit on the rocking and rolling committee boats in nasty conditions.  The awards were very nice engraved mugs and accompanying flags.  I was able to reconnect with some old friends and meet a few new folks.  It is always a good time at Port Clinton Yacht Club.