Butterfly Fleet 20: Saturday Racing

at 9.22.2012

by Brad

After being away from actually sailing the butterfly since a few weeks after Nationals, I finally had a good free Saturday morning to sail. Forecasts were semi-promising with nice high 80 temps and 5-8 mph winds. As we all would prefer a little more wind this would do for my first day back in while. There are several American flags in between my house and the lake and I always take notice of how they are moving on my way in. It was not very promising this morning. The last one I drive by is at Flag Pole Hill. This flag is so large that if it is barely moving I know I will at least be able to sail. When the flag came into view, it almost looked like it was part of the pole, not moving a inch. However, I was determined to make it out on the water.

While rigging the boat on a questionable day, it is always refreshing to see the tops of another butterfly from the other club to insure you are going to at least have some company. Just as with the flags, not very promising, no sail tops as i was prepping to go. Just as I thought I was going to have to go out on my own, Bob strolled down the dock and in his ever casual way, said, I'll go if you go...

Sandy and Cathy had race duty and came by as we were about to push away from the dock and said it might just be us. Fleet rules require three boats to make races official. We were still game for some practice and the race committee was very kind to set us a short windward/leeward course. The wind was up and down around 2-8mph with lake wide steady puffs that would last a minute or two that got us around the course. We completed two short races with Bob taking first in both. It was a great morning getting out on the water and we both had a good time racing. Sandy did a great job finding the wind and bringing it to the course with his magic wand and Cathy took some nice pics.