Carnival Ride
​This was a tough night to set a course, there are a few wind directions that make it hard to set a “true” windward-leeward course and the southerly wind is one of them.   Thanks to Race Committee, Chris Jackson, Warren Collier, Leigh Ann Collier, Connor Flanagan, Will Brown, Chris Lewis, Greg Manning and Kyle and Liz Stadele for all their effort.
          
With 2 races under our belt and one pseudo hurricane/tornado on the books, this has been an exciting season so far.  With the many different weather patterns that are popping up it feels like a carnival ride from one race day to the next.  
          
The High PHRF fleet had an upset last week with High Voltage and She-Devil putting the moves on the Red Baron (Breeze), giving son Jonathan some breathing room with one point separating the top 2 boats and a tie for third place.  Sotally Tober has got that Pearson flying while Chris and Linda (both on J-27’s) now tied for 2nd place in the Mid PHRF fleet.
          
The hurricane Iniki made it to the top spot in the Low PHRF fleet, which puts him in 1st place and WaveByeSR in 2nd place overall.  Uncle!Uncle! has taken the top spot because he has been the most consistent in his fleet while Lamorak and Fellowship are tied for 2ndin the Melges 24 fleet.    The Cruisers continued to be dominated by Tween’r and Beau Gust in the top 2 spots. 
          
Racing requires two very different sets of skills.  The obvious first skill is to be able to make your boat “go fast” in the required direction but the second is the ability to determine what tactics you want to use in any given situation and usually you have to make quick decisions that may affect you and other boats.  Starting line and mark roundings are excellent examples of situations that require important decisions to be made quickly and knowledge of the CURRENT racing rules.  The most important would be “what can I do to avoid hitting another boat”, often difficult to do on the starting line.
         
I am a silver lining girl but when I heard there was some drama on the racecourse I was so happy it wasn’t me and it wasn’t in Fleet 4 (the troublemakers).  This time there were harsh words and rule quotes being flung around at the start of Fleet 2 and 3.    I believe “Mast-abeam” was thrown around to the dismay of several sailors.
          
​I am going to pose some race rule questions at the end of each of my race review.  At some point the answers will be posted to either the website or facebook.  So here goes:
Question 1: Mast-abeam was once a very popular race rule, what was it’s purpose and when was it deleted from our current set of rules?
Look forward to seeing everyone on the race course,  Dana 
 
PS  If your boat is undamaged, but you are unable to get to it by land but you can by water, please contact some of your friends or other sailors and we can certainly try to give you a lift to your boat.  Reach out to your friends and fleet members for help.  We are a very close community and want to help.

​Another Three Horns
Who took my magic bottle that contained my genie?  It’s tall, black and red and has She-Devil written on the side.   I would have used one of my wishes to conjure up some nice 8+ wind with a cool breeze and beautiful sunset,  but without my genie, I am helpless.

I know it is summer and storms are swirling around us, but does it have to happen EVERY Wed night!  Thank you Race Committee of Jim Kingery and crew of Sotally Tober for recognizing that the storm was not going around us and it might be safer if we removed ourselves from our 30+ foot lightning rods.   Almost everybody made it to their dock before the wind and rain became a serious issue.  This was one night that everyone had their boat buttoned up in record time.  No hanging out on the docks this Wednesday.

Also on the menu this week is the LARC Moonlight series.  SSC should be running the skipper’s meeting on Sat. Aug 1 at 6pm.  More information about this race on Thursday.  

​Look forward to a race without a storm looming on the horizon,
Dana

​​A Night to Remember
Race Committee sure worked hard for their credit this week.  We had 3 course changes to deal with the almost 60 degree shifts that occurred during the starting sequences and then add moving the barge twice while having difficulty getting the anchor to hold can be quite a challenge.  Add to that the weather starting to do somersaults; first rain, then no wind and then a 10+ breeze appears at the start of the last fleet and this was a challenging night for Mike Iuvone, Paul Stouffer, Jeff Lehman, and Scott Merewether (spell?) and I applaud their tenacity.  The weather certainly did not cooperate and then the “piece de resistance” as they are busily trying to finish the race a thunderstorm rolls up.  Fortunately all the boats that sailed the proper course and went through the shortened course gate, completed their race before the lightning struck.  

There were a lot of lessons to be learned from this night.  One of the most important was to double check the course board before your start sequence, the lead boat of your fleet is not always going to the correct mark and the weather forecast is usually not correct.

We had some great competition tonight and this was a night where several factors were in play for those top finishers.  In the Cruiser fleet, Tween’r and Beau Gust finished at the top of their fleet.  Lamorak finished first in Melges 24 with only 2 second between 2nd place Fellowship and 3rd place Uncle! Uncle!.
The Low PHRF fleet had a winner when Wave Bye SR crossed the line and in the Mid PHRF fleet the competition was fierce when Sotally Tober finished first, but 2nd and 3rdplace went to instant Karma and Perpetual Motion with only 20 seconds between them.  Does that help or hurt when your wife beats you in a race?  ( Love you guys :) )  Finally the last to finish, but the closest in finish times was the High PHRF fleet.  The top 3 boats finished within 20 seconds of each other with Breeze taking first (curse you Red Baron), Hawkeye with a second (welcome back Tom Graham) and silly Billy the Cat taking a third.  Then the next 5 boats were within 20 seconds of each other.  Awesome sailing and difficult for RC.

It was definitely a night to remember and I applaud the RC for their supreme effort.
Upcoming races: Race 2-3 on July 22, Race 2-4 on July 29 and Moonlight #3 on Sat Aug 1.

​See you on the race course, Dana

​Three Horns
​It was a thunderous beginning of the second series of the Wed night races.  RC of Jonathan Stewart and Bill the Cat crew (Bill Quinn, Will Shirley, Steve Sudderth and Rachael Green) made the maximum effort to run a race.  I think many people have included their crew in their family circle and if not, there was always the example of the masked crew of Strega (thanks for being a good example).  But we ended up following the RC around, trying to find something and when the wind came up so did the thunder and lightning. 

Technology is great, now we have tools to aid in the decision-making that RC makes for each race.  Not always a popular decision (you can never make everyone happy), but usually a safe decision.  Most of us came prepared for a possible rainy night, but fortunately the rain (did you see the rain in Cumming) stayed in Cumming and we didn’t get our sails wet. 

Look forward to seeing everyone for Race 2.  Dana