TORTOISE/HARE CONFUSION: August 26th Race Report

Another well attended race.  With wind!   Sails appeared along various shorelines and self-assembled until we had nine boats racing including five with both mainsail and jib, making for a picturesque lake scene if you happened to be taking photos.  Winds were enough for a good race, and unpredictable and gusty enough to keep everyone on their toes even during some calm spells. Phil Bush, crewing for John Auld became familiar with Y-Flyer boom vang head clearance when quickly moving from leeward to windward during sudden gusts.  

  

That blue line running from the boom to the mast is the boom vang. Duck!

Thanks to Beth Auld, Cindy Bartlett and Bernice & Terry Rains for volunteering on the Committee Boat (Bernice and Terry made themselves available at the last minute).  And Terry!- Way to set anchors so that the pontoon boat was floating smack dab, exactly, precisely next to the yellow flag the entire race!  And they took in all of the race markers after the race which was much appreciated in the heat. Thanks to Beth Auld for coordinating volunteers for the race, this being a tougher one to cover.  And to Kevin Preuss for organizing the race and setting up a good course with Lisa’s help.  Arlene Truex graciously extended her hospitality again for our post-race gathering.  Thanks everyone! 

 

Sailor’s pre-race practice runs benefited from plenty of wind particularly in a wide area near the start/finish line.  The wind was plentiful on the way to the first mark. The run to the second mark was slow but steady.  Upon reaching the second mark, in both races the winds stopped until there was a large gunwale-to-gunwale gathering of boats all in the same place.  The lull was not long enough for an agenda to be agreed upon though.  Then wind-reading skills and some luck took over once the wind re-appeared.  Slightly different courses were set to the third mark, stretching the field of boats out once more, determining much of the finish order.   The final run from the third mark to the finish line was also interesting with no wind direction to be taken for granted.  John Auld and Phil Bush successfully stayed closer to the shoreline than to the center of the course from about lot 256 to lot 249 in the first race when the wind was coming from S-SW and funneled along the shoreline.   But when they attempted this again in the 2^nd race, they found the wind had shifted more to W-SW and they just inched along. Meanwhile the Cartwrights in the Thistle stayed toward the center of the course and passed them handily.  While both Auld/Bush and the Cartwrights² thought they finished ahead of the other double-sailed boats in the second race, they and all others will be surprised by the handicapped result. Sailors were also covering each other’s next moves, using their rights-of-way to their own advantage in the chess game with their opponents.   Kevin Preuss and Matt Bartlett mused after the race that perhaps their sparring allowed Laura Garret to slip ahead of them for a win in the Laser class.

Dianne stands on centerboard.  Step#1 in righting a sailboat

Later, always helpful Lance and Bianca assist Dianne.  Here Bianca lifts top of mast to make the righting process a bit easier.

Our sailors will be surprised, shocked even, at the result of the 2^nd race.  Various sailboat models have an official handicap to account for differences in their inherent speed. We apply this handicap to the elapsed finish time recorded on the stopwatch. In the second race, we had a tortoise-beats-hare story. In the fable, the tortoise wins.   But in our case the hare, the MUFFIN BUNNY, became the tortoise in the fable. Got that?   The “MUFFIN BUNNY” hopped to a first place finish!  The Sniders sailboat #2, named the Muffin Bunny, an AMF Sunbird with a high handicap captained by Bill Kent and crew Gay Lawson won first place in the International Class in the second race. The boat is inherently slower than the rest of our fleet (our fleet’s handicap factors range from 83 for the Thistle to 115 for the AMF Sunbird).  And indeed they finished the second race about 7 stop-watch minutes later than the 2nd place finisher, and were even 5 minutes behind the stop-watch finish of the last place finisher.  That is quite a long time. So long that many were much of the way back to their docks when Bill and Gay were enjoying a wind that gave them a rapid straight shot from the third mark to the finish line. But when you factor in its handicap, Bill and Gay out sailed their competitors by half a minute with the handicap.  Well done!  Come back!  

For an idea of which boats in our fleet are faster/slower by design, here are their handicaps with fastest listed first and slowest listed last:  Thistle 83.0, M-Scow 85.2, Hobie 86, Y-Flyer 87.9, Laser 92.3, JY-15 92.4, Butterfly 109.4, AMF Sunbird 115.

Sailors winning first in their class or overall in either of the two races were John Auld/Phil Bush, Matt Bartlett, Laura Garrett, and Bill Kent/Gay Lawson.

We enjoyed a well-attended relaxing gathering at GYC’s “Home Port” at Arlene Truex’s.  Some weren’t quite as gregarious as usual due to the toll taken on their energy by the sun and heat while fighting gusty winds.  At least three sailors were too whupped to attend the full moon gathering that evening.

Race Results:

FIRST RACE (“LABOR DAY”TROPHY RACE):

Laser Class:  Laura Garrett 1^st, Matt Bartlett 2^nd, Kevin Preuss 3rd, Dianne Fisher 4th.

International Class:  John Auld/Phil Bush 1st, Tom Schroeder 2^nd, Jeff/Tom Cartwright 3^rd, Bill Kent/Gay Lawson 4^th, Lance/Bianca Snider 5th

Overall results on handicapped basis (not for scoring purposes):  Laura Garrett 1^st, Matt Bartlett 2^nd, Kevin Preuss 3^rd, John Auld/Phil Bush 4^th Tom Schroeder 5^th, Dianne Fisher 6^th, Jeff/Tom Cartwright 7^th, Bill Kent/Gay Lawson 8^th, Lance/Bianca Snider 9^th.

SECOND RACE:

Laser Class:  Matt Bartlett 1st, Laura Garrett 2nd, Dianne Fisher 3rd, Kevin Preuss 4th

International Class:  Bill Kent/Gay Lawson in the MUFFIN BUNNY 1st,  John Auld/Phil Bush 2^nd,  Jeff/Tom Cartwright 3^rd, Tom Schroeder 4^th, Lance/Bianca Snider 5^th.

Overall results on handicapped basis (not for scoring purposes):  Matt Bartlett 1st, Laura Garrett 2nd, Bill Kent/Gay Lawson in the MUFFIN BUNNY 3rd, John Auld/Phil Bush 4th, Jeff/Tom Cartwright 5th, Dianne Fisher 6th, Kevin Preuss 7^th, Tom Schroeder 8^th, Lance/Bianca Snider 9^th.

NEXT RACE

Our next race is September 9^th.