Notes and Results: Wednesday August 19th

This week's Wednesday night race seems like it was almost a week ago. Okay, it was almost a week ago and I'm behind. My crew tells me I'm a little behind all the time. Well, at least that's the way I choose to interpret what they are saying. "Behind", "ass", they mean the same thing don't they?

Anywho, before we get to Wednesday's race, this weekend was the Trans Erie Race from Grosse Ile to Erie Pennsylvania. North Cape wasn't as well represented as it has been in some years, but those who went showed their stuff. Bill Bollin's Badfish reveled in the conditions and led the way in a sportboat assault on the course with an overall win in a record setting run of 15 hours and 40 minutes for the 140 nautical miles, an average of 9 knots including a couple of hours of little wind! Check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q5bF5HWLs4 from www.dieballsailing.com . Big time fun. That Melges 32 is not your typical 4KSB (if you know what I mean) or your father's Oldsmobile for that matter either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDUrQS1C7dg . Results are attached.

Now back to our regularly scheduled feature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sudrqrCxQQ Wednesday night's race was overcast but at least had more wind than last week. What is it about gray days that makes it seem like it's windier than it really is? It weas blowing about 11 to 12 but a number of boats were trying out their smaller jibs, even us, we went with a #2 although could have easily carried the #1. Course #2 took the spinnaker boats on a weather leg to East and then a chute run to North followed by a tight reach back to the finish at West. The Jammers beat to the Center Mark, turned left for a reach to the North and then back West. The first two legs were fairly uneventful. I think we went a little too far right with the leg slightly favored on the left side of the course. Figures, last week the right corner paid off. Our decision to go with the smaller shouldered reaching chute proving to be a decent choice for the fairly tight reach of the second leg. It seemed to be as fast with less drama than its bigger shouldered cousin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isM22ba4lVw .

We turned the corner at North to find that most of the fleet had decided that jibs made sense for the last leg. There were a few chutes up in front of us including the big black number on Presto. It took us a little while to square our act away but once we were dialed in, it proved to be a fairly easy chute leg after all. A little before the finish we saw Fred Hibbert's Fearless going the opposite way (northerly) alongside the race course with the sails being lowered. Hmmm, strange. But no visible signs of disress from the crew that we noticed. Dick Frazier's Sweet Carmela who was just ahead of us (and flying a jib instead of a chute) opted to go back to see what if anything Fearless needed. When we reached the finish a quick look over my shoulder confirmed that both boats were still back there and not headed in so we dropped sails and motored back up the course to see what was up. By the time we got there, Carmela had Fearless in tow and Fearless wass playing "crack the whip" in the waves at the end of the towline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1nsz3pK6i4 The Fearless crew was gathered in the cockpit and didn't look all that happy about the situation. Tiller in hand, no rudder in the water. So what's more useless than a rudder broken off at water level? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-u9u_B_4OQ Okay, so now what? We motored up alongside Carmela (being careful to avoid getting tagged by Fearless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHebZgv2_ck ) . Carmela suggested we take a line from our bow to Fearless's stern to try to slow the oscillations. Okay, done, with little discernible effect. We eventually figured out that by us motoring slowly in reverse with Carmela powering forward we could keep just enough tension on Fearless's bow and stern lines that we could keep them moderately under control. The only downside to that manuver is that Fred's formerly twenty-six foot long boat is now stretched to about thirty-two. Oh well, he was thinking about trading up anyway. At least we succeeded in getting them back in the cut!

In PHRF A, the night's festivities went to Holy Toledo sneaking in nine seconds in front of Abracadabra with Fupastank in 3rd.

PHRF B Full TIlt took honors in front of Red Cloud with Rodger and Carolyn Dutton's White Star showing excellent speed in 3rd.

PHRF C saw Rob Fox's J22, Defender, take the measure of the J30s with Robert Crumley's Sophia in 2nd and Wildcat in 3rd.

JAM A saw the orange boats take it to the red boats this week. MEGA in 1st, Orange Crate in 2nd, and Breakawy edging out Tyrannous for 3rd.

JAM B had Aftermath2 first, Dick Hamilton's La Chiva 2nd, and Bill Comber's Beach Comber in 3rd.

Overalls went to MEGA in JAM and a popular wind by Defender in PHRF.

Believe it or not, there are only two more of our regular midweek series races left, this Wednesday the 26th followed by our Sunday potluck race on the 30th. The Sunday race starts at 1:00 PM.

After that the next three Wednesdays are the Captain Morgans Series. We race out to one mark of the race committee's choice and return to the west mark for a two legged race as darkness tries its best to intrude on our fun.

Where, oh where is my underwear, errr, I mean, has summer gone?

For those of you planning a little ahead, Labor Day weekend will bring a Full Moon Friday fun race, the Dedication Race on Saturday to Port Clinton, and then the Green Island Race on Sunday. Hope to see you for one or more of those events!

Kent