Saturday Racing 09-08-12
at 9.10.2012
by Brad
A welcome change to the recent heat wave greeted us at the lake on Saturday. Record highs of 104 on Friday were replace with mid 70s as a cold front blew in on Friday night. Along with the cooler temps came the wind. Winds blew from the north/ north east and were consistently above 20 mph with strong frequent gusts over 25mph. Bruce was at the lake early, as always, just to see if there were any takers. One of our newest guests, James, has been sailing with the fleet the past few weeks and was up for the challenge. We needed a third sailor to make the races official. In a very strategic plan, Paul had brought a friend with him to join in on race duty with myself. He also brought his sails, just in case… There we go, we had a third. The guys rigged their boats and Paul's friend, Chris, and I went out on the choppy lake to set the course. We decided to run a short Triangle and 1/3 to see if we could get the three around the course a few times and head in. We always try to hold three races, but in the given conditions we knew we would be lucky if we could get one in. Everyone made it to the start line and we quickly got them on their way.
Bruce and Paul dueled it out around the course while James held his own and did well in the heavy wind. Paul came in a few boat lengths ahead for first, with Bruce just behind. James stayed up and took a very well deserved finish and decided to call it a day.
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| Paul and Bruce |
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| James making the mark |
Bruce and Paul stuck around and raced the course again together for some good practice. It was a nice day with no major incidents. Paul took a dip at one point and quickly recovered on his own. It was great to see James come out and look forward to a new face on the starting line. He is currently looking for a great deal on a used butterfly if anyone has any leads let us know.
On the way back to the club we caught some shots of Paul riding the waves and a few big gusts...
Back at the club the Wooden Boat Association was putting on another great display of their boats. It is always great to see these historic boats that used to run the waters in the early years of the lake.
9/11/2012 11:30 AM
Saturday was good day weather wise and wind wise.
With a strong wind from the north in the area that we were sailing in their frequently long periods of starboard tack with very sudden short bursts of port tack air.
In the 2 pictures of Paul reaching after the racing was over you see a large rooster tail after the boat. That is because the tiler is being used to steer and is usually slow if done for very long. To combat that you can do one of 3 things: 1. Hike out further, 2. Ease the Sail a little or 3. Raise the centerboard a bit. And then there are times the wind is just too much.
9/12/2012 6:47 AM
Congrats to James who is now a new boat owner.