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 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 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 (jstewart1224@gmail.com) , 2021 1st fleet captain. See you on the race course, Dana This race was a challenge for RC, the predictions all week had been a cessation of the rain and an increase of the wind. They were correct about the rain and the wonderful air temperature but the wind never achieved expectations. David and Carol Reddaway and their race committee volunteers, spent some time making sure we had a square course. The wind shifted several times and RC started with a temporary windward mark until the wind finally settled to A mark.
We had an interesting start, the Melges 24 fleet started first and the rest of the fleets started second. The last 2 LARC races were pursuit starts, so this was good practice for those hectic starts on Wednesday nights with boats of many sizes. I thought it was a lot of fun, especially since I was in front of the 30 foot monsters. I didn’t stay that way but it was fun while it lasted. We had quite a contest in the Melges 24 fleet between Hermes and Premature Acceleration with Tony Stanley beating Davis Macleod by 4 seconds. In the Low PHRF, newcomer Hot Toddy (J-90), finished 7 minutes in front of his competition, while in the High PHRF we were very happy to see Hunter Sohn out on his Wavelength 24. In the Cruiser fleet, we have an old racer and a new boat, Impetuous, sailed by an old salty dog (Greg Cash) and his crew of reprobates (looked like Ben Harbin and Tim Wilson), sailing to first place 15 minutes in front of their competition (someone might need to do an inspection of his boat) in this race. I usually wait until trophy presentations to declare the winners. But we must adapt. The winners of the 2021 Winter LARC series are (complete results are available with attached document): Winter 2021 overall results Small Sport- 1st Brent McKenzie 2nd Tony Stanley 3rd Davis Macleod 4th Umberger/Kirshner Low PHRF- 1st JStewart/JGuy 2nd David Jackson 3rd Lee Estes High PHRF- 1st Dana Stewart 2nd Jim Rapp 3rd Robin Terrell Cruiser- 1st Greg Cash 2nd Pete Winham __________________________________________________________________________________ Last Winter LARC race is Sat Feb 27. Skipper’s meeting at LLSC at 11am. Flat start. Please send intentions by Friday so that RC can plan the starts.
The weather has been wild during this winter sailing season. Last Saturday it started snowing as soon as we got back to the dock after the race. This race everyone girded their loins (I have always wanted to say that) for a wet and cold race day. But the weather gods were smiling on us and though we all went out in the rain, very soon after our start it stopped raining. The temperature got colder as we sailed along at a fair 5 knots down to 11 and back to A mark finishing an eight mile course at X mark. Once again we had a downwind start, but this time I believe our honorable Race Committee chair, Jonathan Stewart, did it on purpose (he likes a challenge). But a big thanks to Jonathan for taking on the responsibility of arranging RC for Wed nights and many keelboat events for 2021. I will send an email with the overall results for the winter series next week. Results are:
Look forward to seeing everyone on the race course, Dana __________________________________________________________________________________ The anticipation is over, we finally completed a race. The first race gave us beautiful weather, but no wind. After it was abandoned, we said how happy we were to be out on the lake on a winter’s day. Then on the second race day, we had nice wind all morning and as the sun came out the nice easterly wind became a very slow westerly and again we said what a nice day to be out on the lake. But as the day got nicer, the challenge was to finish the race within the time limit.
It was a tough day to be race committee and then add the 90 degree shift in wind from skipper’s meeting to start time and we now have a downwind start in a pursuit race. A big thanks to Chris Webster for taking charge of this first pursuit race. This was my first downwind start in a pursuit race and it was a challenge to time this start correctly. It was especially demanding on the spinnaker flyer because she had never been asked to slow the boat down before. A new experience for us all. Small Sport Brent McKenzie Davis Macleod (retired) Gary Umberger (retired) Low PHRF Lee Estes John Guy/ Jonathan Stewart Mike Wroblewski / Mike Stewart Linda Webster Chris Webster David Jackson (retired) High PHRF Dana Stewart Jim Rapp Robin Terrell Kent Rogers (retired) Mike Iuvone (retired) Kyle Meyhoefer (retired) Rick Smith (DNC) Cruiser Greg Cash Kirk Jockell Jim Chambers (retired) Look forward to seeing everyone on the race course, Sat Feb 6 at the Hot Ruddered Bum. Dana __________________________________________________________________________________ The next 3 races in the LARC winter series will be: #2 sponsored by BFSC will be Sat, Jan 23, #3 will be on Sat Feb 13 and the last race on Sat Feb 27. Skipper’s meeting at 11am at Aqualand. I will attempt to broadcast skipper’s meeting on ch 69.
This first race of the year was anticlimactic. The weather built us up to anticipate a great weekend. Once the rain quit on Friday after 2 very depressing days (though they were warmer), then the cold air really crept in and the wind howled all day Saturday with just enough sunshine to make us think we were going to have a great race on Sunday. It was looking good at the skipper’s meeting with a nice wind and the sun starting to take of the chill out of the outdoor air. And then as race time approached the wind starts to do a dramatic shift to the west. The race committee sets a course to the new conditions and then the wind drops to a whisper (I forgot to put money in the wind bank). I am now worried that there will be enough wind to make it to ANY weather mark! Fortunately the race committee from UYC, Kent Rogers, Edith Collins, and Susan Reddaway recognized the futility of trying to start a race in these conditions and abandoned the race. The next race will be this Sat, Jan 23 and at this time the weather forecast for is 56 degrees and looking good. I hope to see everyone on the race course. Dana __________________________________________________________________________________ Hurricane Sally I think the question from last Wednesday’s race is do you like it wet or very wet? I was looking at some of the facebook comments from the race and someone said “once you put your foulies on and were in the race you didn’t notice the rain”. I would say that was true unless you were on a J-24 and then you had the continuous drip from the back of the boom on your lap. Hurricane Sally was passing us to the north and gave us some cooler temps and very nice wind. Though they predicted some heavy winds, fortunately we had a nice 10 mph breeze from the east giving us some very interesting shifts and rain all evening, but fortunately not heavy enough to impede our progress around the race course. A big thanks to Warren Collier, Ted Phillips and Will Brown for braving the elements and providing a great race. I was not surprised that there were 5 boats from the competitive High PHRF fleet. And the winner of this race was the J-22 helmed by Kyle Meyhoefer. Despite the weather conditions you can’t keep a new addition to our racing passion at home. One of our new contestants in the Cruiser fleet was Missy Jaeger in the Hunter 386 and Spencer Gay in his new Hunter 34. The Low PHRF fleet had a new addition with the J-88 sailed by Mike Stewart and Mike Wroblewski and in the Mid PHRF fleet we had the X95 (Seniorita X) sailed by Juergen Haeberle. Queen Bee, a Beneteau 386, sailed by Rene Ward was the new boat in the High PHRF fleet. We have 5 more races in this series and a reminder that the start of the Cruiser fleet is 6:15 and the rest of the fleets start after 6:30pm. Upcoming weekend races are Sunday, Sept. 27 will be LARC #2 and Oct. 3-4, will be the Barefoot Open. Look forward to seeing you on the race course, Dana Find your sailing muse Wow, we managed to complete 6 races out of the 10 scheduled. It has been quite a summer, weather wise. We had our ups and downs, but we persevered. RC went out and did the best job possible and sometimes we got lucky and often we did not, but fortunately none of our RC made us suffer. Occasionally the wind quit in the middle of the race, but RC always found a way finish the race and relieve our suffering. This last race cemented Kirk Jockell’s place in the cruiser fleet with 5 first place finishes, while David Wright and Kurt Schurenberg battled it out in the last race with David finishing 8 seconds in front of Kurt securing 2nd place in the series. It was a top dog battle in the Melges 24 fleet, going into this last race Matt Perry and Lenkeit/Morang were tied. Brent McKenzie made a great showing by winning this last race but it wasn’t enough to beat Matt Perry for Top Dog status. Did everyone see the American Beauty sitting on the stern of Renegade, I bet you that was Jeff’s muse. The Low PHRF fleet was another fleet that the winner of the last race would take the series. It was a tight battle between Jeff Freeman, John McCarthy and Mike Macleod with Freeman and his muse taking the top spot. This last race of the Mid PHRF fleet was a battle of the Websters. If you look at the scores they almost always finish next to each other, you can tell they both have amazing skills. But in the end the person that won the series was the only person with 2 first places finishes, Jim Kingery. A very tough fleet and growing with the addition of Walter Addison, David Jackson and Jean-Francois Rivard in their boats. The biggest fleet was the High PHRF fleet with 13 boats. In a fleet this large, you want to win the race but usually sections of the fleet end up competing against those in your competitive group. If you watched a race, you know the obvious winner was Jonathan Stewart/Bill Quinn on Bill the Cat with 4 first place finishes. The rest of us felt like we were chasing him all the time (at least I did). Then came the next group which were the four J-24’s that battled it out each week with Mike Stewart (the Red Baron) floating to the top of the J’s and winning a 2nd place in the series and his protagonist, She-Devil, landed in 3rd place. But the boat to look out for was Doug Britton and his crew on High Voltage, they made a spectacular showing by winning this last race. This fleet had quite a few new members this year in Beisner/Postel and Kyle Meyhoefer in J-22’s, Jim Rapp in the Colgate 26 and Robert Beauchamp in the Harmony 22, Gemini Cricket. The participation in this series was phenomemal with 39 boats competing on a weekly basis. This is the most participation of any event all year with any type of boat. This is also a tribute to the many people that make this work, but especially the boats and their crews that volunteer to forego racing their boat to provide the excellent race committee each week, often a thankless job but always done with competence. I would also like to commend the officers of the fleet that are behind the scenes making the organization of this usually 20 week event possible. John McCarthy who is on the phone each week lining up competent RC, Randy Phillips who keeps us organized and makes sure we have all the tools we need to run this many races, Gary Umberger who behind the scenes keeps us financially solvent, Warren Collier our diplomatic leader and David Wright who has been instrumental in increasing the Cruiser fleet participation. This is definitely a team effort and impossible for one person to do. As the summer winds down, we will begin the next set of Wednesday night races. On Sept 16, we will begin the last round of Wednesday night races, the Encore series. This will be the first of the 6 races of the Encore series. Cruiser start will be at 6:15 with all other fleets starting after 6:30. Congratulations to all participants for your effort and I will see you on the race course, Dana Close Competition Randy Phillips and his team certainly pulled the rabbit out of the hat this race. It has been exciting having completed our 5th race of this series with only one more race to go. This has been such a popular series, I noticed we had guests out there tonight. I saw Jim Chambers in his new boat, Wind Spinner, haunting the race course while Rene Ward in his boat Queen Bee along with a Viper that followed us around the race course. We had some good racing this night which will affect the overall standings. In the Cruiser fleet Sails Call has sailed into the second position overall, while in the High PHRF fleet, the Pussy boat (Bill the Cat) continues in first while his father “the Red Baron” is solidly in second with She-Devil pushing him hard. The Mid PHRF fleet has one of the closest races with the battle between Your Move and Perpetual Motion who are tied for the second position. But this last race of this series will most affect the Low PHRF fleet because Iniki, Renegade and Wave Bye SR are all less than one point away from each other. This last race should be a lot of fun to watch. The Melges 24 fleet in their usual fashion have a tie for first between Fellowship and Rapscallion and then another tie for third between Ex-Kahn and Lamorak. This last race should be an exciting evening. Just a reminder of upcoming events. The Encore series will begin on Sept 16 and the first race of the Fall LARC series will be this Sunday, Sept 13. Good luck to everyone, Dana 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 (jrphillips17@gmail.com) 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 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. |
Results by Month
April 2024
Results by YearScorekeeperDana Stewart | She Devil |