The weather report held true last night. Well, for the most part. There was no question that the wind built as the evening went on, but the wind shifts were definitely making it hard to get the line square before the start.
When we got out to the race course at 5:30, the wind was blowing straight from the harbor making it look like the PHRF boats would have lots of reaching up and down the river. Typical Miles River fashion, the wind decided to change to the SW just before the attention signal causing us to postpone while we reset the weather mark and the line.
It was very confusing to move at the last minute and we probably should have given ourselves even more time. Judi wasn't there to calm us with her sweet voice on the radio, so I was reading the times in my abrupt hawking voice - even I was disturbed!
Fortunately that didn't seem to bother the classes. The Stars got out very clean with good spread down the line. I guessed they noticed the pin was favored and that the wind was still shifting to the south. A class was clear, but there was a tendency to load up at the committee boat. B class was all about the barging start! Lots of inter-boat communication and a bit of touching. The people who started at the pin really made out!
Close reaching from the first mark to the Gibson Flats mark with only a couple boats trying the chute, but jibe at the flats and race out the river! With the wind building and puffing, boats ended up at the Scotland mark in no time.
With the wind still backing, the Stars found the course to be more of a broad reach to the leeward mark and a one-tack approach to the windward mark. We barely had time to get set up for the finish! Excellent job by Mike on
Seabiscuit who somehow managed to go right and still come in second. Eric on
Rebel Yell cleaned up practically surfing across the finish line for a 1st.
In the A class,
Rumor (racing without intrepid skipper, Harry) came in an impressive second in the building air, but the real show was Jeff's
Ostinato who showed us what that J/105 can do coming in a whopping 4 minutes before
Rumor and correcting into 1st place.
The B class had several good performances. Janet's
Pennyless and Si's
Cabaret both had excellent nights. The Higgins Factory Team on
Hopped Up also did an amazing job considering that they only had two people and lots of wind to deal with. But it was the Monster on the Course that managed to finish first. Norm's
Pagan came across the line with more than 3 minutes on the fleet and still easily corrected into first. It's scary being on the RC with
Pagan baring down on you. It looks like a train coming at you. You just hope they tack in time!
Glad to see the classes mixing up. See you out there next week.
August 5th is the James H. Wilson "Around the Island" Race. You know it, you love it. Mr. Jimmy was a big proponent of the race where we get to stretch our legs a bit in the big water of Eastern Bay.
