Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hot August Nights Race Series Heats Up

We had an amazing turnout for the 2nd race of this series! Our count was 48 people attending and 9 boats racing. Not bad for a weekday evening event.

Tim Gould took first place in a race with little bit of everything - detailed results to follow later today. At 5:30 PM there was a steady and strong west wind. By 6:00 PM there was zero wind. By 6:30 there was a strong north wind. By start time at 7:30 there was a light south wind.

To save time we kept start mark placement, even though it required a downwind start, and TL graciously volunteered to be a temporary committee boat for a downwind start. Course was to Bird Island and Burston Island and back to the dock and start mark.

The light wind held until the lead pack of boats reached the lee of Burston Island. Then we all virtually stopped, except Commodore Gould who with some voodoo and Skipjack black magic managed to follow the shoreline and find enough breeze to round the island first.

Halfway up the final leg beat, the breeze filled in very nicely. For the last few hundred yards I could fly a hull at will and was having a grand time as I watched Bruce and Tim cross the finish line minutes ahead of me.

At the finish, Tim's main halyard broke and he used his "cat like reflexes" to avoid a head knock by the boom. If only this had happened around Burston Island...

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