the 2006 Wayfarer Midwinters East
Lake Eustis SC, Tavares, FL * Feb. 3-5
Sunday: Race 3.1
 photos by Dave Moring

The third and final race is about to get underway under the watchful eyes of Denis Oldham and ??? in the leeward end mark boat.
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Again, the Scots ...
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... lead off. The excitement must have proved too much for photographer, Dave. When you turn the dial one stop past P (for program) to A (for aperture priority), the camera gives washed out pics, being unable to adjust for the brightness of a sunny day.
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I see Scott Tillema in the safety boat but where is the Captain?
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As the Wayfarers get set to follow, the current oscillation favours the leeward end on starboard.
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Doomed!! Richard and Al (yellow hull) once more demonstrate that too many chiefs determining start strategy is usually counter-productive. Fortunately, we had managed to bleed off so much of our speed that we ...
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... tacked more or less on the spot and did not foul Joe (red hull) who will be battling head to head with Marc (green hull) for the 2006 Midwinters title.
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Our forced tack onto port left us in Butch's dirt (blue hull), so we threw in a second ...
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... much crisper tack and went left as per our race plan.
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From here (far left) we had a great view of sail shapes and slots on the boats who had started without the undue excitement.
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The Scots' first run as ...
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... seen from the leeward gate.
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And a lovely ...
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... sight they are ...
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... too! Note the visible wind patches on the water.
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As a still fairly well bunched Wayfarer fleet nears the gate for the first time, Marc and Michele (green hull) appear ...
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... to be leading as they gybe towards the left-hand gate mark, protecting against their direst threat, Joe (behind them with the red spi). But wait!!! Isn't that ...
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... Jim and Linda Heffernan, sneaking in to round ...
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... inside and with the lead??!! Don't you wish that you had lovely 30-year-old blown out sails like Jim's??!! This should remind us all, just where the need for new sails rates in the Wayfarer Hierarchy of Needs.
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A lovely rounding for Jim and Linda as they start beat #2. Note how Marc and Michele (r)  have eased their sails and will now try to foot through to leeward. Jim's strategic decisions would begin to desert him after this, however. Still, Jim and Linda's first two legs of this race show what can be accomplished by mistake-free smart sailing, even with two ancient sails and no spinnaker!
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Joe and Brian round into a great attacking spot: They, of course, need not worry about Jim who is counting a race 2 DNF. All they need to do is beat Marc and Michele (r).
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Gale and Gary round 4th ahead of Richard (10139) and Jim Lingeman (2136), trying the right-hand mark. Jim will later tease Al about how it took our spinnakering Chickin the whole run to move from just behind Jim and Mike to this position a mile later.
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