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What a build up to the end of the Wednesday night race season. This next to last Wednesday night race was everything we expect from a Fall race. It was whitecapping in areas as we went out to the race course, but as predicted it settled down to a nice breeze with gusts that kept us on our toes this evening. As usual for an easterly wind, it was shifty and made you pay close attention to what was going on around you. You missed an interesting spectacle if you didn’t get to watch the start of the Low PHRF fleet. It was a lot of fun to watch.
As usual our race committee of David Jackson, Warren Collier, Christian Koerner, and Mary Lyons did an excellent job setting up a course and shortening some of the fleets just at the right time. Thanks to Will Brown and Mary Lyons for setting up the meal and making sure the kitchen was clean. Next week will be chili and dogs. Next Wednesday will be our last evening race of the 2021, but don’t forget the Encore awards celebration on Wednesday, Oct 20 starting about 6pm. Attached is the Race results and the overall fleet standings. See you on the race course, Dana _____________________________________________________________________________ I think the thing that stood out in this race besides the gorgeous day and very shifty wind was the start. Normally a pursuit start is pretty relaxed because almost everybody starts at a different time but today there were a lot of people in the starting area long before their starting time and there seemed to be a lot boats trying to sail in the same small area. It was the trickiest start I have experienced in a pursuit race and lots of fun. As we raced to “C”, it looked like we were all going to round “C” to starboard at the same time. From the comments made after the race, there was some contretemps at the windward mark, but once the spinnakers were up, the fleet started to spread out and raced to E.
A big thanks to Tedd Meinersmann and the BFSC for getting us started on this gorgeous Fall afternoon. We had a record number of boats that came out to enjoy this second race of the series. The next race will be on Sunday Oct 17 sponsored by UYC. Here is the order of the finishes, Note we have a new boat on the lake, Slingshot a C&C 99, owned by Kent Rogers. Congratulations Kent.
Attached is the results according to fleet. I might mention that the scores would have been done earlier, but several people were unsure of their finish time. 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 Mother Nature took a break this week and if your boat didn’t break in the last 2 races, you were extremely lucky. This series so far has been a challenge to racers and Race Committee alike.
Race Committee members Heather Tempske, Terra Bowers, Neil Harris, Alan Hudon, Maggie Royal and John Fredrico did an excellent job of getting 45 boats started, giving participants a square starting line, and a great course to sail (if I do say so myself). You will have to excuse the 3 horns that went off about 6:30, we were trying to change the setting on the Istart system and hit the wrong button. Looking at a race from the RC’s perspective is quite an awe-inspiring sight, especially for RC members that are new to racing. My favorite picture was watching 15 cruisers cross the starting line. It would have been scary watching those huge 30 footers coming at you, if you were in something less than our sturdy LLSC barge (courtesy of Randy Baker and friends). I am sure this race was a different challenge to everyone with the wind appearing at different times all over the race course. My biggest concern was D mark because it looked like everyone was going very slowly in that vicinity, but my chase boat reported that many of the cruisers and the Melges 24’s said “hello” to each other (politely) as these 2 fleets rounded the weather mark at the same time. I want to give a “shout out” to everyone that thanked us for doing this task which keeps us from sailing. We tried to make it the best possible race for everyone. So gather together your crew and some of your friends to experience this job which gives you a different perspective of the complexities of running this race. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ Somebody threw too much money into the wind bank for this race. Last night had to be a challenge for Race Committee of Tony Cellamare, Stefan Schulze, Ben Harbin and their crew. Because RC had the most difficult of racing conditions and probably 30+ boats to watch, there may have been some confusion about starters and finishes. So please look at results and if you think they are in error, please email me with your sail # and who finished in front and behind you.
See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ We were off to a shaky start for this first day of the Championship series with rain in the forecast for Saturday and light winds predicted, but I had high hopes for this 2021 sailing season. The plan was to complete multiple races and RC did an excellent job in getting in 3 races. The wind shifted all day, but RC changed the course as needed between each race during the day to give us great racing conditions. The day started by going to D and back. But as the day progressed the wind started to spread and pick up in velocity and we went to X and back to A twice for the second race. With increased wind velocity we had a nice 5.1 nm race to H mark and back for our last race.
Thanks to race committee, Warren Collier, Kyle Wheatley, Jim Chambers, Ansel Parker, and Mary Lyons for an excellent race day. The next PHRF Championship race will be on Sat. June 12, weekend after the Reggae Regatta on June 5-6. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ And... we're off! It was a bang-up night. People were so eager to start racing they started colliding with each other. I don’t think I have ever heard of so many near misses and there were at least 2 collisions on the race course last night. But it was a great start of the season with 48 boats registered and last night there were 36 boats cruising around race committee, despite the rain forecast and the sprinkles we received. Race committee did a great job in posting and broadcasting the courses for the different fleets (that is if you had your radio on and went and checked the course board after the cruisers started). It was a great night for a sailboat race with steady winds bordering on whitecapping at the start of the race which died gently as the race progressed. A big thanks to our first race committee of the season consisting of John McCarthy, Ken Blackenship, William Ruland, Doug Early, Joey Duran, Eric Brown, Randy Baker, Randy Phillips and Tim Thompson. They had a lot of boats to keep track of. Just a reminder to make sure you have a sail number on your sail. Also, radio communication from boats should be kept to a minimum once the races have started. These broadcast by the RC is meant as a courtesy before the race and emergencies or retiring boats during the race. Anyone wishing to do Race Committee for a Wednesday night, please contact Jonathan Stewart ([email protected]) , 2021 1st fleet captain. See you on the race course, Dana |
Results by Month
September 2024
Results by YearScorekeeperDana Stewart | She Devil |
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