June 25th Race: FEROCIOUS

Photos courtesy of Margaret Powers

 We had a fast wind for our race.  Unfortunately it was very unsteady and unpredictable even by Grandview standards. There were "ferocious gusts" as Catey Hale described them. Only she and her crew, Elizabeth escaped either capsize or inability to continue the race. Catey said that luckily Elizabeth was back in town to crew for her and did an excellent job handling the difficult conditions and keeping them from trouble.  They sailed a great couple of races. They won the second race by an impressive margin. Matt Bartlett won the first race also by an impressive margin. 

Two Y-Flyers and two Lasers approaching the 1st mark with full sails

Thanks to our fine Committee Boat crew of Beth Auld, Bob Orben and Margaret Powers for an  excellent job of conducting the race.  And a very nice job of staying well anchored in the gusty winds.   They expressed gratitude that they didn’t have to anchor in the deepest part of the lake.  John Auld and Paul Hass set up a great course.  Jim Riffle in the safety boat had a busy day minding capsized sailors and towing John and Paul to their dock.  He also pulled up all the race markers after the race with a little help from Tom Schroeder.   We had a fun protest meeting at Arlene’s and had to dash inside when the storm hit.  Thanks Arlene!

The first casualties were Tom Schroeder and Phil Bush in the JY-15.  Before the start of the first race, they nearly capsized and in the process lost the tiller to Davy Jones’ locker. With no control over the boat, they had to lower the sails and abandon the race.  They mounted the trolling motor and limped to Arlene’s dock struggling to keep the boat pointed in the right direction in the gusty winds.  Tom and Phil watched the races from Arlene’s dock wishing they were participating, but as events unfolded, maybe a little relieved they weren’t.

John Auld and Paul Hass, while trying to point just a little higher toward the wind,  heard a loud pop as a spreader broke, and their mast bent.  Whoa!  They could no longer sail.  Ouch!  They were towed back to their dock by Jim Riffle.  John will be looking for a new mast for his Y-flyer. 

John and Paul being towed home by Jim Riffle. If you look closely you can see the bent mast

Later Lance and Bianca in their newly acquired Y-Flyer had achieved an advantageous position relative to some other competitors.  They celebrated a little  (uh-oh) and whack!  “High five syndrome” strikes again!   They capsized and turtled.  The Voelz family paparazzi became good Samaritans and came to their rescue.  They gingerly towed the upside-down boat close to  shore where the mast could be lifted and the boat righted.  They then towed Lance and Bianca, still smiling about an exciting day,  to their dock.  

Late in the second race the boats that were still seaworthy were having loads of trouble near the third mark in the big inlet.  Tom and Sara Cartwright in the mighty Thistle just had too much sail to be able to proceed upwind.  They drifted all the way down to the north end of the inlet, and with sails lowered were towed back to their dock by good Samaritan Marty  (from next to the lighthouse) on a jet ski. 

The next race is July 9th and is the "Fourth of July" Trophy Race.