A Melges 24 kind of night
Congratulations to all the Melges 24’s that made it all the way to the short finish at “A “of this 8th race date of the second series. Fortunately, none of the rest of us had to drift our way through light and lighter air to make our way to A and back to X.  

A big thanks to race committee of Mike and Davis Macleod, Brad Buster, Chris Hoffman and Wheeler Sutton,  who put a valiant effort in starting a race and then recognizing that it was a futile attempt and abandoned the race for all fleets except those swift Melges 24.

Two more races to go until the end of series 2.  The Encore series will begin the next week which will start a half hour earlier.

I am putting some extra quarters in the wind bank to see if we can have some decent wind for our next 2 attempts for a race.  Good luck to everyone,  Dana

The Accompanying Lighting
To abandon a race, is as disappointing to the race committee as it is to all those that made the mad dash from their job to the lake for a little relaxation called racing!  There are many reasons to abandon a race, but RC on this night was extremely justified in their decision.  RC could have ignored the bands of rain that came through while we diehards were on our way to X mark, but they could not ignore the accompanying lighting strikes in Cumming.  I thought John McCarthy and crew (Randy Baker, Ken Blankenship, Doug Early, Ann Early, William Ruland and Tim Thompson) did an excellent job of assessing the situation and making the appropriate call for this evening.

Of the seven times we have ventured out to the race course, we have only been able to complete four races.  We now have only have 3 more races before the end of this second series.  As we put on our rain jackets heading to the race course, I was noting what other boats had braved the rain and weather on the chance that there would be a race.  Obviously these were the boats that were in contention for one of the top spots in their fleet or they were the CRAZY ones (like us).

What was impressive was there were more boats in the Melges 24 fleet that went out, than any other fleet. That tells me that this fleet is a bunch extreme sailing enthusiasts or one of the most competitive bunch of people we have on the lake. 

Just a reminder that the Encore Wed night series begins on Sept. 16, the Wed immediately following Race 10 of Series 2.  Please notify Randy Phillips ([email protected]) or myself of your intent to join us in the Encore series asap so that fleet splits can be determined.

More information on upcoming events of the Fall calendar coming soon.
Looking forward to more wind and less lightning next week,    Dana
Dana Stewart 404/849-1809

A gift for Poseidon
I had an interesting view from the Race Committee barge last Wed.  While I was praying the wind would appear as I reluctantly set the anchor, I had a different perspective of the pre-race ritual that occurs before a race.  To have 30 boats sailing around you was like having a swarm of bees circling the barge.  I am sure they all had their best mind reader on the boat, trying to figure out what I was planning on doing.  Of course what was going through my mind was “I don’t want to start a race in this!!”  Jonathan’s rule of thumb, “3 knots for 3 minutes” kept running through my mind, but I was willing to compromise if SOMETHING came up.  I kept looking at the wind anemometer on the barge and it continued to read 0.00.  But then Doug Early dug into his pocket and found a SILVER DOLLAR and threw it into the lake.  Like magic, wind conditions changed, we (Doug) hauled up the anchor for the second time and off we went to X.  Now the sailors are no longer a swarm of bees, but a very sweet bunch of sheep following me around the lake, hoping for better conditions.

A big thanks to Doug Early for pulling up the barge anchor 3 times with no complaint and his helpers Heather Tempske, Terra Bowers and Annie Early.  My wind finders and chase boat operators, Brian Clark and Brad Bowers, cruised the course looking for good photos/videos and for anyone that needed help.  Speaking of video, they captured many of the boats rounding D mark but my favorite is where Hawkeye deftly rounds the windward mark in front of Bill the Cat (go J-24).

Fleet 4 made no trouble this night, they (as well as everybody else) were extremely happy with the wind conditions, just in time for the first fleet to start.  The Cat managed to squeeze by the Red Baron by 3 corrected seconds and taking a first.  But the best performance was by Kyle and his merry gang of GT’ers on the J-22 #533 as they finished 3rd over the line and corrected.  

Fleet 3, Mid PHRF have had quite a series with Big Red (Your Move) and Perpetual Motion (after having to forego last week’s race because of inability to get his boat out of the marina), managed to place first and second in this race.  

While Renegade beat the Hurricane by 33 seconds in the Low PHRF fleet, it was not enough to win this race.  Unfortunately, Wave Bye SR had to retire because of main halyard failure.  The Melges 24 fleet, had some improved performances this week when Rapscallion took the top spot while Fellowship and Hermes sailed into 2nd and 3rd place.  Once again, no Melges 24 has won more than 1 race so far in this series.  That is impressive competition.

The cruiser fleet survived the rounding of D mark with Caribbean Soul getting the gun at the finish, but Tween’r corrected to win his 3rd race of the series.  
 
Answer to Rule Question 1,  posted on the LLSC Keelboat facebook page.
The Answer to Rule Question 2, will also be posted on facebook.
 
We started Question 2 with 2 boats on the same tack, heading for starting line.  The J24 was clear ahead and the Wv24 was clear astern.
Question 3:  Both boats are still on the same tack, but now the J24 becomes overlapped to leeward by the Wv24.  Rule 12 was in play while there was no overlap, but now there is an overlap, what rule or rules gives the Wv24 right of way?  
 
Thanks to everyone who has done Race Committee work and I look forward to seeing everyone from the cockpit of my boat,   Dana

After the Tornado 
What a way to start the week, we were hit by a “tornado” or massive winds that swept eastern part of the lake.  I think Aqualand took the biggest hit but LLSC and Holiday Marina also had some damage.  We all banded together to help our dock neighbors and friends and managed to get most of the boats out for the race.  Unfortunately, our friends on Snowfox and Breakaway suffered the most damage at Aqualand and because of the shifting of several Aqualand docks several boats were prevented from participating in the race.  But as always, through pandemic and extreme weather, we carry on.

The Cruiser fleet had a new winner this week in David Wright on Sails Call after their fleet was postponed (due to lack of wind), they moved to the back of the starting order.  The Melges 24 fleet once again proved they were competitive spirit by earning a general recall and were also sent to the back of the starting order.  But once started, Davis Macleod swam to the 2nd place spot in this race.

In fleet 2, Mike Macleod and John McCarthy are battling for control of their fleet and Mike (with his new top batten) came out on top this night.  We had a new winner in the Mid PHRF fleet when Stefan Schulze finished close enough to correct to first place, but it is amazing that the first FOUR boats in their fleet finished within a sixteen (16) second period of time.  Good thing RC were on their toes this night.

There was some trouble determining whether there was an individual recall for the troublemaker fleet (fleet 4), but a request for redress ended up exonerating those boats.  Tom Graham and Mark Turner managed to squeeze in between the Stewart sandwich which had dominated the fleet and sailed to 3rd place. 
 
           The racing rules questions for this week is:
“What are the rules for 2 boats on the same tack at the starting line?”
Let’s look at this example and determine who is right?
A J-24 is approaching the starting line as the windward boat on starboard and a Wv-24 is accelerating to leeward of the J-24 also on starboard.  As the Wv24 approaches the J-24 to leeward, he begins hailing the J-24 “go up, don’t come down”.  If the J-24 clear ahead, then what is her response or responsibilities at that time?  Will it change when the Wv24 achieves overlap?
 
The answers to this and last week’s question will be on the LLSC Keelboat facebook page.
 
See you on the racecourse,  Dana