Sailing Japan this week meant joining the WhiteSail fleet out of Kansai Yacht Club, Nishinomiya. The race started with a Skipper’s meeting held inside the KYC clubhouse starting at 9:20 am and then it was out to the bay to do battle.
The boats all moved up to the start line which was some 4 miles away from the berths at KYC, and prepared for a 11:00am start. Looking at the wind I worried if there would be a race start at all as a lazy and erratic one knot of breeze floated across the fleet.
The club flag went up indicating 5 minutes till start and the engines were all switched off. The race was on and it promised to be a very tough yacht race doing the best we can with 1-4 knots of breeze. SpinDrift and her crew did everything they could to stay in touch with the lead boats however we were outclassed by the veterans within the Whitesail group yet again. There were some moments in this race that we saw out true potential shine through only to be dashed by some small error or another. Sailing with the Whitesail boys you don’t get a chance to make mistakes. Each mistake costs you ground you can not normally get it back.
The second race ran pretty much as the first expept it had to be shortened due to the lack of wind. I know sailing in Japan or anywhere else in the world means being prepared to sail in light winds however as this was my fourth consecutive day of racing in no wind I am really praying hard for some of the promised autumn power we should see at this time of the year for our next race.
May 17th will see us all out at Suma Beach for the Kobe Festival race. Hope to see you there.
Oh and do remember if you would like to join on on any of the races be sure to drop us an email. Love to have you on board.
Mark Smith.
SpinDrift. T-301.