FAST WINDS AND RACES Sept 12 Race Report

Photos courtesy of Justin Bush, Lisa Duret and Julia Schroeder

Because of the fast wind and low humidity it didn’t seem like ninety degrees. Sailors were rewarded for the five-week weather and holiday driven hiatus with a great, fast wind out of the south/southwest.   

 

Lisa waves the 5 minute to start flag. Cindy positions the boat at the starting line, and Bob minds the stopwatch.

 

A few seconds before the start, boats head for the starting line, jockeying for the best position. Kevin seems to have it.

The long course was straight into the wind to the first mark, making for some tacking and adjusting to "headers" (bad)  and "lifts" (good). 

 

On the way to the first mark. Social distancing nautical style.

 

Matt on his way to 1st mark

Laura on her way to the fist mark

Things get more interesting...

Lance and Bianca (foreground) and Tom and Phil on their way to the 1st mark.  And then...

 

...Lance and Bianca tack and head toward the paparazzi, which....

 

...gets a close up of them.  Yeah, they are going to want the high-resolution version of this, don't you think?.  The paparazzi is very reasonable we are told.

 In the meantime, 

Jim hiked out on way to 1st mark.  Then he encounters Tom and Phil...

Jim coming from the right on a starboard tack has the right of way over Tom/Phil. He yelled "Starboard!" to make sure they will yield to him.  Tom and Phil anticipated this and are executing a tack to avoid Jim and run parallel to him.

 

As they tack they must duck (passing under the "limbo stick"). By the way, at the bottom of the starboard (right) column of this blog is an entire series of photos entitled the "limbo collection", complete with a link to the "Limbo Rock" recording.  Enjoy.

 

And all the sailors get around the orange first mark flag

 The 2^nd mark required a tricky jibe which at least one sailor fell victim to with a capsize. 

Kevin successfully jibes around 2nd mark

Tom, feet up, delegated the jibe to Phil

Laura capsized after jibing, Tom and Phil wobbled a bit, but Phil kept it under control

Phil, appropriately proud of himself gives the paparazzi a "high five", risking "high five syndrome". Tom continues to relax having great confidence in his crew.

The 3^rd mark, unusually deep into the long eastern inlet, required a fast tack in heavy wind once clear of the mark.

 

After rounding the last mark, sailors head into the wind toward the finish line. Jim Voelz is closest followed by Kevin Preuss and the rest of the fleet.

There were three capsizes and a few near-capsizes.  None involving high-five syndrome after the race though.   The races were fast, only taking about 15 minutes or so, and with fairly close finishes.  Jim Voelz finished first overall in both races.

Thanks to our volunteers, Cindy Bartlett, Lisa Duret and Bob Orben who conducted the race while skillfully keeping the unanchored Committee Boat well positioned since anchoring was not effective.  They also pulled up all the markers after the race, which was above and beyond the call, especially in that wind. Kudos!   Jim Riffle and Arlene Truex were ready in the safety boat, but the capsized sailors all recovered quickly and there was not much other boat traffic to keep at bay.  Matt and Cindy Bartlett with a little assist from Tom Schroeder set up a long course that wasn’t affected by any significant wind shadows. Kevin Preuss and Beth Auld had the race operations humming as usual.

The protest meeting was our first gathering for five weeks, so we enjoyed catching up.  Thanks, Arlene, for your hospitality!

The next race is this coming SATURDAY Sept 18^th (not the usual Sunday) and is the last of the season. A week later we have the awards “protest meeting” the afternoon of the 26^th.

Complete race results are as follows: