Wednesday Night Race #3 • June 17, 2020

RESULTS ( week 1 - 3 )

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

---