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. 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 I think the best comment of the night was when I spoke to the awesome 2 person RC of Ted and Dora McGee (what a finely honed team) and we discussed the possibility of rain and storms. Ted’s comment to me was “Rain is not going to bother me”. I was in love with our fearsome and experienced RC and knew he would make safe decisions. We had lower attendance in this race but the threat of rain probably kept many people at home, but it paid off to those of us that decided to stick it out. We had great weather and a beautiful sunset. We had several ties coming in to this last race and the competition was close. In the Small sport fleet, no one had won more than one race, so with a throw out the game was on. Ex-Kahn pulled ahead of the fleet by taking a first in the last race. Renegade continues to dominate the Low PHRF fleet. Walter Addison, new owner of refurbished J-27, sailed the wheels off his boat in his first series to take a 2nd in the Mid PHRF fleet. Congratulations Walter. In the High PHRF fleet the Red Baron (Breeze) flew around the race course for this last race and really shook up the fleet. Bill the Cat finished 19 seconds behind his dad with our new contender, High Voltage, racing to 3rd place in this last race. There was some excellent racing in this last race of the series in the competitive Cruiser fleet. Tween’r revved up his crew and sailed to his second first of the series and our own Randy Phillips raced his new Beneteau to 2nd place. The first race of the second series will be Wed, July 8. I hope everyone has a very “social distant” holiday. Thank you everyone for making this come-back to racing so successful. Watch for news about trophies and upcoming events. Happy 4th of July, Dana Let me reiterate our thanks to our unsung heroes, Race Committee. Week one on June 3 was Mark Turner and family, then on week two was Bill Overend and members of J-24, High Voltage and last week was Randy Phillips and his excellent band of reprobates. We had our first general recall of the season and not too unusual for a fleet of 9 boats. As usual the wind was shifty and large pockets of dead air were all around waiting to trap the unsuspecting sailor. This night tested every sailor out there; did you tack on a 10, 20, 30 degree shifts or take the hit and continue on your planned course. You roll the dice and hope for the best. This game we play can often be quite agonizing and hard on the crew. A couple of weeks ago, my crew called me CRANKY. I was quite upset that I might have let this game we play make me irritable. Wearing a mask makes me irritable, sailing doesn’t. We now have 2 races under our belt and 1 more to go in our abbreviated Series One, which will end next Wednesday, June 24thand after a hiatus of 2 weeks (one Wednesday) Series Two will begin on July 8th. We have some very competitive races going on all the fleets. In the cruiser fleet, Kirk Jockell is winning but there is only 1 point separating each of the top 3 boats. Spencer Gay and Kurt Schurenberg will be pushing Kirk hard in this last race. The High PHRF fleet is being dominated by Jonathan Stewart and his “Bill the Cat” team. But the real fight will be between the two J-24’s, Breeze and She-Devil. I can only hope that the Devil takes out the Red Baron again in this last race. It will be Stewart vs Stewart vs Stewart. Let best looking Stewart win!! The Mid PHRF fleet is being led by the team of Chris and David (sorry about your broken arm) Jackson. Linda Webster has a good hold on second place while our new J-27 sailor, Walter Addison and his boat, Reckless Abandon are securely in third. Low PHRF is a tough race between Jeff Freeman on his Flying Tiger and Mike Macleod with his newly purchased Elliott 770 from the estate of our long-time sailor friend, Greg Bell. The Small Sport fleet consisting of Melges 24’s have a couple of contests occurring within the fleet. Second place will be a tough race between Gary Umberger and Brent McKenzie. There is a tie for fifth place between Morang/Lenkeit and Tony Stanley and then there is the battle for seventh place with Cellamare/Harbin and Pat Finnick. A very, very active and competitive fleet. Good luck to you all. Upcoming Keelboat events: Wed, June 24 Race 1-4 (last race series 1) Sat, June 27 Moonlight race by BFSC (this will be the first of 3 remaining races) Wed, July 8 Race 2-1 (first of 10 races of series 2) Just a reminder that all LARC races (Winter, Moonlight & Fall series) are free to anybody that is a member of one of the 4 sailing clubs on Lake Lanier. Attached will be the NOR/SI for the LARC 2020 series of races. Don’t forget to send any pics from our races to me, so that we can post them on the website. We have seen some great sails and sunsets. Look forward to seeing you on the race course, Dana
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Results by Month
May 2024
Results by YearScorekeeperDana Stewart | She Devil |