Thanks to Race Committee Warren Collier, David Jackson, Will Brown, and Connor Flannigan for making this an exciting and for some boats a nail-biting experience.  One of the greatest shots of this race was the spinnaker run between Iniki (white w/red hurricane symbol) and the Renegade (red, white and blue).  This was the first bullet of the season for Iniki in this fleet dominated by Hot Toddy and Renegade.
 
This race rates as one of the most surprising courses we have been given so far on a Wednesday night.  Warren was listening to the Call of the Wild when he dreamed up this course.  Actually, I think he was responding to the requests from many boats for longer races.  
 
The fleet that had the closest race this week was in the in the High PHRF fleet.  The J-22 Highlander corrected over the J-24 by a mere 11 seconds.  That downwind run from “H” was quite a nerve-wracking experience as we watched the wind fill in and die unexpectantly on this 1.87 nm leg on the way back to “X”.  The conversations with other boats about downwind tactics during this long leg were very interesting in their diversity.    
 
I hope everyone is planning to attend the Reggae Regatta on June 5-6.  We will be serving traditional Caribbean food, as well as T-shirts may be available.   We have a great registration fee of $10 for PHRF and Cruisers.  Come help us celebrate the beginning of the summer at one of the longest running and most popular open regattas of the year.  
 
See you on the race course,   Dana
______________________________________________________________________

In my own defense, at 6pm the wind came from the NW (A mark) and there was no indication that there would be an 180 degree shift in the wind.   What a surprise when I arrived at X mark 2 hours later to find we were going to start downwind.   I wondered if anyone was thinking dark thoughts about whoever (me) set up this racecourse.
        
Even though we had little wind all day, as the sun started to set we finally started to have a little breeze, just enough to tease us into thinking we had a race going.  But once again, Lake Lanier in its usual fashion, played a trick on us.  We had just enough wind to make it to A mark and then the wind shut off.  Fortunately for Davis Macleod, he had managed to slip around the mark before the wind completely died and took off for F.   While the rest of us struggled to get around the first mark.
        
I would have paid money to see a recording of the encounter of the BIG red boat, Breakaway, and the little J-24.  A lot of  “no steerage”, “starboard”, “no room at the mark” and anything else we could think of was bandied about between these and other boats during this very slow mark rounding.    
        
I hope everyone enjoyed the gorgeous red sunset as we drifted to the first mark.  And those that were drifting back to F, were rewarded with the exciting fireworks display by Margaritaville.
        
Thanks to everyone that shared this wonderful moonlit evening.
Next race will be Sat June 19.  I will send a reminder early in the week and ask for info for those interested in racing.
 
See you on the race course,    Dana
 
The order of the finishes were:
Davis Macleod
Lee Estes
Norman Plotkin

 ______________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Race Committee Chris Webster, Tom Graham, David Pope, Bill Boetcher, Kyle Weamley, Karen Christy, Reilly Christy, and Cyndi Stirne. We once again topped new records of attendance with 45 boats racing this night.  With that many boats circling the race committee for the course and other boats taking measure of the starting line, it really helped when Tom Graham made the announcements over the radio.  But generally RC does not answer questions from competitors, especially once the sequence has started for the first fleet.  Please familiarize yourself with all the visual signals that RC can possibly use.

I had an interesting conversation with Chris Webster tonight before the race.  He was bemoaning the fact he was going to have to use “E” as his windward mark.  He really wanted to give us a fun race and that wasn’t going to help.   But we were lucky this time because in the usual Lake Lanier style the wind had shifted almost 90 degrees since our discussion and now we were going to “F”.  We had great (though gusty) wind all evening and great racing conditions.   

Now that we have completed 6 races, the races are heating up and I noticed that the starts are getting much more aggressive.  Good luck everyone.

​Don’t forget the LARC after Dark, Moonlight race on Saturday.  Summer is creeping up on us.
 
Dana

Thanks to Paul Stouffer, Mike Iuvone, Hudson and Bridget Brock for the great job of doing race committee this week.
 
I was transported back to February as I experienced the cooler temperatures and crazy wind we had this evening.  Everyone reached back into their closets and grabbed their winter foul weather gear, gloves and hat.  It was an evening full of wild shifts and puffs coming out of nowhere, often happening so fast that you didn’t have time to deal with them unless you had someone reading a crystal ball (which I keep in the sink of my boat).  Race committee gave us a great course and ended the race at a perfect time.
 
We are halfway through this series and it has been full of surprises and lots of wind (often more than I want).  We have had some surprises this series, but the biggest has been the incredible growth of the Cruiser fleet.  This fleet has grown from 7 boats on the racecourse last year to 16 registered boats this year.  It has grown so large that we had to split the fleet.  Great job in getting out the word, what a great time we have on Wednesday nights.
 
See you on the race course,   Dana

The crews got their workout this night with the many sail changes that were necessary.  We had 40 boats out on this Wednesday which started with a lot of dark clouds and very gusty wind, but gradually changed to a beautiful sunset.  It has been a challenging Spring for our boats (maybe the crew too).  In this 4th race of the series, one boat finished with no mainsail and another lost their spinnaker.
         
Just a reminder of upcoming weekend events:
         Sat, May 15 Joan Holcomb Womens race sponsored by BFSC
         Sat, May 22 Moonlight race by LARC
         Sat/Sun, June 5-6 Reggae Regatta (we’re BACK) sponsored by LLSC
         Sat, June 12 PHRF Championship race #2 sponsored by LLSC
 
I hope everyone has the opportunity to spend time with their Mother this coming Sunday.

See you on the race course,      Dana
_______________________________________________________________________________________