At the start, the first leg south was a tight starboard jib reach and the only start with multiple boats were J111’s Pura Vida and Momentous, with Momentous starting inside (to leeward) and poking out and to windward of PV. They looked good for the first half of the leg but seemed over-powered with a J2 and soon were being dragged further to weather and team Vida was able to straight line it to the 4-mile CRIB. After rounding the CRIB and a brief bear away, Pura Vida executed a silky gybe set and headed north with the gybe mark to the Northeast, with Momentous bearing away and heading Northeast to the Gybe mark lay line.
With the wind up, Pura Vida approached the lay line a bit more rapidly than they anticipated and had to execute a snap gybe and partial wipe out to head east to the mark. The mark was behind them with only Celestial (Tartan 4300) and Tino Time (J24) ahead. Also, in the rearview mirror was Momentous, Mazal Tov and Jahazi (J120’s) with Mazal Tov executing a perfect pirouette right before the mark. They were able to get the chute under control and doused then made their way to the Wilson Avenue CRIB on a screaming jib reach.
After the Wilson Avenue CRIB the course to the finish was a beat into an unrelenting southerly. Pura Vida made it past Celestial and stayed ahead of Momentous for the win, with Tino Time at the finish lay line about a mile east. Pura Vida was first to finish with Momentous close behind followed by Celestial, Mazal Tov and Vayu (Beneteau 40.7).
All in all a great race with the rain holding off until the trip in.
A big thank you to Columbia Yacht Race Committee for another great event!
