I'm sitting here finishing up a project and there are huge bursts of
lightning happening on the lake behind the house. One struck just
off the opposite shore, with a huge spray of steam. Fortunately,
the scullers had already left. Now, it's mostly pouring, which is
pretty unusual for August around here.

I was in a race on Saturday in the bay. Angel Island to the
Marin YC. The rules were no motoring over 4 kts, which is
fine with me, since I can't get my outboard to push the boat
faster than about 3 kts. We were wing-on-wing most of the
way, slowing gybing back and forth. Most of the other boats
had either a huge genny or were twice our size, but we managed
to stay with them right to the end. We were coming in the channel,
when the wind piped up suddenly... I was motoring at this point,
as were everyone else... unfortunately, my little outboard couldn't
keep us in the channel, and by the time I got the jib up (maybe
10 seconds), we were in 4 ft of water. Not a problem just yet,
but I couldn't turn. Then we were in 3.5 ft. Then, we kissed the
mud. Fortunately, the tide was rising, so we kedged and waited.
The safety boat came out to find us finally, and a gentle pull got
us off the bottom. We sailed in the rest of the way and did a
side tie against the Catalina 27. I found out later that my friend's
Tartan almost got stuck too when his electrical system shorted
out and the engine died. He was lucky to get out of it without a
serious boat fire.

I was in a race on Saturday in the bay. Angel Island to the
Marin YC. The rules were no motoring over 4 kts,

You race with motors on? Strange....do they assign phrf ratings to your =
outboards?

--=20
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

I don't usually race. This was a friendly get there to party
race. They wouldn't give me a handicap because they
knew I would win, even if I got stuck in the mud. :-)

"katysails" wrote in message
...
I was in a race on Saturday in the bay. Angel Island to the
Marin YC. The rules were no motoring over 4 kts,

You race with motors on? Strange....do they assign phrf ratings to your
outboards?

--
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein