​First, a reminder that we will NOT have a race next Wed, July 5, but we will resume racing on the Wed, July 12. 

Another day and another awesome course by this week’s race committee team.  Thanks to Mike and Rebecca Krantz, Jim Chambers, Linda Hoopes, Bob Burrgarden and JLillian Gray for a fine job this evening and they didn’t have to rescue anyone, that was a real plus.  We always appreciate the VHF announcements because it often is hard to get close to the race committee barge because nobody wants to interfere in another fleet’s start.
 
This was a night when the crew had to work harder than the skipper.  I told my crew, pretend you are on a Melges 24 and you don’t have any cleats (at least that is what I heard).  This was a night where you had to trim all of your sails all of the time, there was no time to cleat.  It was quite enlightening to watch the different spinnaker tactics that came to play tonight in the long leg from H to X. 
 
We had some new starts in the sky!!  In the Mid-PHRF fleet Sotally Tober had the perfect conditions to stomp all over his fleet, while the  X-26 in the Low PHRF fleet has shown that this boat handles well in the extreme conditions we have on Lake Lanier.  In the High Cruiser fleet, Wind Dancer is starting to put the moves on his fleet.  This fleet is becoming very competitive, they are going to have to get new sails to be competitive with Maggie Mae and Wind Spinner.

Thanks Chris Flynn for this great shot of the finishers.  What a sight it must have been for people driving over Brown’s Bridge Road.
See you on the race course,    Dana
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Message from the scorer, Kyle Meyhoefer.

Whether you chose to brave the conditions or save your sails this week (ours were considerably floppier by the end of the night), you made the right choice! It was a very puffy and shifty night, making sailing quite the challenge, but when you caught one of the 20+ knot puffs it was well worth it. It's not often you see a J22 on plane on Lake Lanier, but we got there a couple of times last night. It's also not often you see a J-88 barreling at you at 16 knots but Patrick Vrana and crew had Valkyrie's bow up out of the water and were making a pretty serious wake as they made their way downwind. I'd be interested to hear what everyone's top recorded speeds were!

Not all of the spectacles were good though, the view of the bottom of Hermes' hull was a reminder of Mother Nature's might (and the need to carry a radio). We made a quite wide leeward mark rounding to check on the crew, they were okay and had been able to radio for assistance. Special thanks to Lee and Jo Ann Estes, Jeff Freeman, and crew who took a rescue boat to assist! 

One thing is for sure, the races were quite the spectacle and many people will have many stories to come! Thanks to the Race Committee crew: Tony Cellamare, Ben Harbin, Caroline Speir, Dave Spiller, Donna Cardenas, and Maggie Moncrief. 
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Thank you race committee members of Tom Graham, Mike Macleod, Mark Turner, Doug Early, April Macleod, and Paul Morris.   When I think of this race, I will always think of the difficulties in starting while another fleet is going through the gate.  As one competitor said, “It was an interesting race”.   There were 45 boats out on this last night of series 1, but there were two fleets with outstanding attendance this evening with 9 boats participating in the Melges 24 fleet and 9 boats in the Mid-PHRF fleet.  What a remarkable feat by these fleets.
 
There were some exceptional performances by individuals this evening.  In the High Cruiser fleet, Bob Morris and Alex Mazurek were hunting down the top guys in their fleet,  while in the Melges 24 fleet Mike Krantz and Tony Cellamare finished first and second in this very tough one-design fleet.  John McCarthy rose to the 2nd place spot in his Low PHRF fleet this evening while the battle for the top spot in the Mid PHRF fleet was decided by this last race.  She-Devil finally took the top spot this week in the J-24 fleet while Chris Beisner in Firefly cemented his 2nd place position in the High PHRF fleet. 
 
Just a reminder that we will have a fantastic dinner before the award ceremony on Wed, June 14 at the clubhouse with everyone gathering around 6:30.  We will begin Series 2 next Wednesday, June 21 and will have 2 races before we break for a week during the week of the 4th of July.  There will be no race on July 5 and series 2 will continue on July 12 for Race 2-3.
 
Thanks to Betty Terrell and Brendon Martelino for these shots of the Mid-PHRF fleet and Large Sportboats.

See you at the awards,    Dana
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