There was a sailing race hosted by the Ventura Yacht Club on January 28, 2017.  I crewed for Claudia on her J24 sailboat “Within Reach”.  They divided the race boats into three groups and we were in group C.  Group C had 3 races and we got second place in all three races and second place overall, of 4 boats.

Controversial Finish Between Rival and Menace

There was a very controversial finish during one of the other two classes.  There were two boats headed for the finish line, Rival and Menace.  The finish line was between a buoy and a boat at anchor.  The race boats were sailing down wind with their spinnakers up side by side.  Menace was on the starboard side and Rival was to Port.  Menace steered toward the sailboat at anchor and did not give Rival any room to cross the finish line.  Menace sailed very closely to the sailboat at anchor passing it on the port side.  This forced Rival to steer to the left to avoid a collision but also prevented them from crossing the finish line.  They doused their spinnaker and did a 360 to go around the sailboat at anchor and cross the finish line, but that cost them time.  I don’t know the official sailing rules, but I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed.

We were sailing back and forth at the start/finish line and saw the whole thing unfold.  I wish I could have made a video of it, but I didn’t bring a camera.

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