The anticipation is over, we finally completed a race.  The first race gave us beautiful weather, but no wind.  After it was abandoned, we said how happy we were to be out on the lake on a winter’s  day.  Then on the second race day, we had nice wind all morning and as the sun came out the nice easterly wind became a very slow westerly and again we said what a nice day to be out on the lake.  But as the day got nicer, the challenge was to finish the race within the time limit.
            
It was a tough day to be race committee and then add the 90 degree shift in wind from skipper’s meeting to start time and we now have a downwind start in a pursuit race. 
A big thanks to Chris Webster for taking charge of this first pursuit race.  This was my first downwind start in a pursuit race and it was a challenge to time this start correctly.  It was especially demanding on the spinnaker flyer because she had never been asked to slow the boat down before.  A new experience for us all.  
 
Small Sport Brent McKenzie
                                    Davis Macleod (retired)
                                    Gary Umberger (retired)
 
Low PHRF     Lee Estes
                                    John Guy/ Jonathan Stewart
                                    Mike Wroblewski / Mike Stewart
                                    Linda Webster
                                    Chris Webster
                                    David Jackson (retired)
 
High PHRF   Dana Stewart
                                    Jim Rapp
                                    Robin Terrell
                                    Kent Rogers (retired)
                                    Mike Iuvone (retired)
                                    Kyle Meyhoefer (retired)
                                    Rick Smith (DNC)
 
Cruiser          Greg Cash
                                    Kirk Jockell
                                    Jim Chambers (retired)
 
Look forward to seeing everyone on the race course, Sat Feb 6 at the Hot Ruddered Bum.
Dana 
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The next 3 races in the LARC winter series will be: #2 sponsored by BFSC will be Sat, Jan 23, #3 will be on Sat Feb 13 and the last race on Sat Feb 27.   Skipper’s meeting at 11am at Aqualand.  I will attempt to broadcast skipper’s meeting on ch 69.   
 
This first race of the year was anticlimactic.  The weather built us up to anticipate a great weekend.  Once the rain quit on Friday after 2 very depressing days (though they were warmer), then the cold air really crept in and the wind howled all day Saturday with just enough sunshine to make us think we were going to have a great race on Sunday.  It was looking good at the skipper’s meeting with  a nice wind and the sun starting to take of the chill out of the outdoor air.  And then as race time approached the wind starts to do a dramatic shift to the west.  The race committee sets a course to the new conditions and then the wind drops to a whisper (I forgot to put money in the wind bank).  I am now worried that there will be enough wind to make it to ANY weather mark!  Fortunately the race committee from UYC,  Kent Rogers, Edith Collins, and Susan Reddaway recognized the futility of trying to start a race in these conditions and abandoned the race.  
 
The next race will be this Sat, Jan 23 and at this time the weather forecast for is 56 degrees and looking good. 
I hope to see everyone on the race course.      Dana 
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