Free Post #2: Ko Olina Race Part 2

A perfect start slingshotted us upwind. The wind was as perfect as you
could ask for - we could reach, the fastest way to sail, right up to
the buoy. A few adjustments and we were blasting through the large
swells off of Diamond Head at a quick 18 knots. Soon me and another
friend needed to go up to the bow (the front of the boat) to get an
ideal weight distribution for sailing. We quickly got up on the rocking
trampoline between the two hulls and hopped over the crossbeam between
them before we reached the sharply angled bow of the hulls. We
rocketed up the swells coming up to meet us, 10, 15 feet in the air, a
brief moment of weightlessness and we smashed back down into the trough
between swells. Gallons of water flew into us, copious amounts of
liquid sprayed up by the hulls. Again and again we flew into the
oncoming swells, burying the bow into the walls of water before rushing
upwards. Ahead of us the rest of the fleet was rounding the mark and
rushing downwind in a tight pack, their massive spinnakers flying.
Spinnakers are huge sails used for downwind sailing. They usually more than double the sail area, and are vital for fast downwind sailing. Their huge expanse and colorful designs make for picture-perfect moments, and in the higher levels of sailing, huge advertising space. Soon enough we rounded the mark, switching the sail over and powering up to speed. We unfurled the aptly named “screacher”, a large sail that had massive area but wasn’t a spinnaker. We began, in one sailor’s words, to “reel ‘em in” – to catch up very fast to the fleet. This whole time we had the mainsail reefed, or furled some to reduce sail area in strong winds. We turned away from the wind for a brief moment to unleash the full mainsail, which was a hindrance, but in the long run it would help greatly. We gybed, or turned downwind, over and crossed behind the fleet to get better wind. Then we all got what we wanted – we furled the screacher and raised the huge, lime green spinnaker. We flew past the fleet, third place, second, then finally first. The fleet disappeared behind us and the coastline rushed up to meet us. In 2 hours and 11 minutes, a remarkably fast time, we finished the race in first by a long shot.