Well this past weekend was Natural High's home regatta of which I was an organizer and we took 11th overall in the downwind sprint, 3rd in our division for the distance race, and 4th overall for the uphill race (we have delivery races up and down the Sound).
It was sunny with winds building to 20-25 all weekend with some gusts over 30 near the finish of the Inflow sprint.
My highlight of the weekend was that during a sustained puff we hit 10.8 kts and actually got the tubby J/30 on PLANE for 40 or so seconds in basically flat water (1 to 1.5 foot chop) so there wasn't any surfing to be had. I didn't even know she could do that!
It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had sailing. She suddenly got rock solid, speed jumped a full knot, the boiling water at the back turned into the classic "v" wake, the helm became feather light, and the spray was pretty spectacular.
Unfortunately a lull came about 40 seconds later and the speed dropped to a boring 9.5 and things got "plowy" again. But we managed to carry the spin deeper into the channel for the finish than any other boats and had a textbook douse.
We were carrying the videographer on board with us and while all this was going on I turned around and SHE WAS CHANGING THE BATTERY IN THE CAMERA.
We tried again on the delivery home on Sunday but the wind was slightly less and we saw 9.5. I could feel her trying to break free again, but it wasn't quite enough and the wind was a bit more on the beam so there was a little too much drag on the helm keeping her upright. Maybe a little pump of the main and pole while turning downind more might have got her up. Next time. The sad thing was feeling disappointed when only managing 9.5; I think I have ruined myself!
Official Regatta Video is here(lots of shots of Natural High): SOAR 32: Official Video Make note at 1:57 of a boat trying to "dip start" a downwind start taking about 8 boats up. We almost went crunch.
News coverage of the event where I got my 3 seconds of fame:
