It was another Fair-Dinkum,
great-sailing-day on Lake DeGray for the third regatta in the IMYC Fall Racing
Series. With a high pressure dome to the
North, the winds were again out of the East/Northeast, occasionally clocking a
bit further South, coming in at a steady 8-10 knots, gusting at times to near
15. Low humidity, sunshine with mixed
clouds, and temperatures in the mid 60’s made for a near perfect Fall race, with
the fleet having the lake all to themselves.
Five boats were on the
line; Rendezvous, with race-committee-chairman
Keith and his wife Barbara on board, a Catalina 40’; No Lizard with Ron Nash driving and sailmaker David Sample running
the lines, a Hunter 26’; Matsya with Bob Rhody driving and wife Julie running
the lines, a Hunter 23’; Bogey with
George Boger driving and Matt from Texarkana running the lines, a Hunter 22’;
and ZCat with Eddie Zeiler driving
and his father Frank trimming, a Catalina 22’.
The starting line was
square to the two in-line windward buoys stretching out from Iron Mountain towards
the west corner of the 7 South causeway.
Just before the start the wind shifted to the
south, heavily favoring a starboard approach to the line. Adding a bit of intrigue and challenge to the
course, a long, low-water-island was sticking out directly windward of the
start line. So boats had to choose to go
left or right of this obstruction. The
course was called out over the radio and everyone confirmed it as one long
windward leg, then shorter leeward – windward legs, then a long leeward leg back
to the start line, four legs in all.
Relying on atomic
clocks for their timed run at the start line, ZCat still did not have her headsail up with one minute left, all
boats were bunched near the right side starting buoy, all coming in on
starboard close-hauled. Ron and Dave on No Lizard got the start, first over and
in the windward position with Keith and Barbara on Rendezvous next down the
line. Eddie on ZCat, now fully rigged, was trailing and leeward of Ron. Matsya
and Bogey were on the port hip of Rendezvous. It was a neck and neck start for the two lead
boats but No Lizard seemed able to
point a bit higher and Keith could not stay with her. No Lizard soon tacked to
port and went to the south side of the island; the other four boats chose to
stay on starboard, going left up the course.
Once again ZCat dropped her headsail.
Rendezvous, now well ahead of the bunch going left, and gaining, drove all
the way to the north shore near De Roche ridge before tacking over to
port. About the same time No Lizard, on
the far side near Iron Mountain, tacked back to starboard after having cleared
the long rocky island ridge. As the two
lead boats approached the mark, both now on port, Keith (with Barbara driving) had
a good lead on Ron and Dave on No Lizard. Bogey was third, Matsya fourth and
ZCat, still without a headsail, trailed the fleet. Both Keith and Ron rounded pretty far ahead
of the other boats and set off on a port broad reach. Matsya overtook Bogey in the last tacking and
she rounded third. Rendezvous rounded downwind at the leeward
mark, heading back upwind on port. The three
trailing boats split on the short downwind leg.
Still surging, Rendezvous rounded the windward mark again in first place
with No Lizard chasing. Off the wind, No
Lizard soon broke out the big red monster (geniker) and had it flying. Just then, behind the two leaders Matsya again
rounded the windward mark third. Bogey
struggled at the last windward mark allowing ZCat to catch up a bit. Downwind, Rendezvous, No Lizard and ZCat went to the
right side of the course (windward view), Matsya and Bogey went to the left
side. Keith and Barbara could not be
caught, even by the well sailed No Lizard and finished first across for line
honors, No Lizard second, Matsya third and ZCat came on strong at the very end
of the last leg to cross just in front of Bogey. After corrections No Lizard captured first place by a mere 5 seconds, followed by Rendezvous, ZCat, Matsya and Bogey.
The second race was
run on the same course and the fleet’s start maneuvers mirrored the first -- No
Lizard closest to the pin and first across the line at the gun, Rendezvous a bit downwind, and ZCat third down
the line. Then came Matsya and
Bogey. The wind had built to
white-cap-strength and it was a truly picture perfect scene as the five boats,
all close-hauled and parallel, marched up toward the windward mark on starboard
tack. Soon all tacked over to port and
were quickly approaching the 7 South peninsula.
No Lizard, still ahead, was first to tack over on the hoped-for lay-line
with Rendezvous following. They rounded the mark in that order with Keith
and Barbara on Rendezvous about 25 seconds behind Ron and Dave on No Lizard. Further back Matsya and ZCat battled it out with
upwind tacking duels and Bogey followed.
Now off the wind, unlike in the first race, No Lizard did not set her
geniker for this short downwind leg. Near
the windward buoy, ZCat appeared ahead but Matsya pinched up and established buoy room for
herself and rounded ahead of ZCat. ZCat
then blanketed Matsya as they both reached off toward the leeward mark. The two leading boats had split after the
windward mark, but the two trailing boats seemed tied together with a line as
they reached off downwind.
Ron and Dave on No
Lizard stayed ahead of Keith and Barbara on the next, short windward leg. For the long downwind leg No Lizard, now well
in the lead, chose to again use the geniker.
However, on raising it, a foul
and hourglass formed in the sail allowing Keith and Barbara on Rendezvous to
catch up a bit from behind. Ron and Dave
struggled with the lines but were finally able to set the sail, then flew downwind
at great speed in the building breeze. Meanwhile,
still on the windward leg, Matsya was ahead of ZCat . Bogey trailed.
In the blustery winds now
Rendezvous chose a more direct course and went wing on wing at times toward the
finish line while No Lizard, with Dave flying her chute, went toward the south
of the long island. The wind stayed up. Eddie
and Frank on ZCat gained an advantage and passed Matsya in the last tacking of
their upwind battle. Having cleared the
long island on the North side, Rendezvous swung to a port broad reach as both
she and No Lizard, on the other side of the island, raced for the finish line. No Lizard hung on to cross just ahead of
Keith and Barbara and get line honors.
Matsya and ZCat also split on the last downwind leg as the breeze
lightened. It was nip and tuck all the
way but ZCat, enjoying more pressure south of the island crossed ahead at the
finish for third place. Matsya came fourth,
then Bogey. After corrections No Lizard was the clear winner with Rendezvous second, Zcat third, Matsya fourth and Bogey fifth.
As the winds continued
to blow steadily from the East, with gusts to above 15, the last race consisted
of three windward-leeward legs to the nearest upwind buoy, six legs in
all. This time the fleet was spread out
in approaching the start line. Ron and
Dave on No Lizard again had the right-side -position near the pin and luffed-up
to avoid being over early, ZCat was downwind
from them on starboard, Rendezvous was in the middle of the line on starboard
but further back. Matsya, defying the
others and with great daring-do, tacked over to port and began weaving her way through the fleet, charging upwind on the
disadvantaged, no-right-of-way tack. Bogey
was close hauled on starboard near the left pin. With a significant clocking shift in the wind
to go further East and South, heading the main fleet on starboard, all those
boats had to tack over, and then played follow-the -leader to Matsya who was
well ahead with her unorthodox but really great start. This time in their first upwind leg, on
port, the whole fleet went south of the island, out from Iron Mountain. As your reporter’s recorder malfunctioned the battle continued on the water. Ron and Dave aboard No Lizard clawed their way to the lead with Bogey in second. Barbara and Keith on Rendezvous, about half-way through the race found themselves in last place after some foul ups. They then settled and began methodically working their way through the others. Ron and Dave on No Lizard, in the lead, mistook the second downwind leg for the finish and ambled off on a leisurely beam reach. In the spirit of the true Corinthian sailor that he is, race committee chairman Keith called up No Lizard on the radio to ask if they knew the race was not over. We all had a good laugh on that one as Ron and Dave rejoined the racing, managing to complete another “horizon job” on the competition for line honors at the finish. George and Matt on Bogey fought bravely the remainder of the race but could not hold off the fast charging Barbara and Keith on Rendezvous who crossed the line second. George got third, Bob and Julie crossed fourth and in uncharacteristic fashion ZCat crossed behind everyone. After six legs and an hour of intense racing, the last three boats crossed within 26 seconds of each other. After corrections the relentless pressure from Zcat, Bogey and Matsya earned them second, third and fourth places, with Rendezvous finishing fifth.
The results for today show once again that you should never let up when racing. Every second at any location on the course counts. Even when the nearest boat is 1/4 mile away the corrected finish may still be decided by only a few seconds.
The camaraderie on the
dock was especially evident after the day’s racing with everyone having really enjoyed
such a terrific day of sailing. This
Saturday the wind gods were really smiling, as was everyone else on the dock who
got to race on this day.
Thanks to John Bomar for this excellent commentary.And check out the Iron Mountain Yacht Club facebook page for some great video of the races.
