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| Still not much wind up ahead! ... |
 |
| A breeze has come down the river
(from astern), and the ... ... |
 |
| ... top five are now very
closely bunched with Bill having taken the lead: (l to r) Bill, Marc, Jamie, Andrew,
Dave ... |
 |
| Here, Dave and Carol make their
move into 3rd place in winds that have become quite patchy. ... |
 |
| A rare sight: Tim and Alan
(7346) under spinnaker as they work to fight off Brian (6082) and Lori
(3140). If Brian briefly lets his spinnaker halyard off a few
inches, that twist will come out of the top of his spi, and then he can
re-tighten the halyard. ... |
 |
| Now it's Dave's turn to lose the
wind as Bill (yellow) and Marc (red) work hard to ... ... |
 |
| ... try to keep their chutes
filled. ... |
 |
| Oh, look! Isn't that nice?!
They're bringing us some wind! (Or words to that effect?) ... |
 |
| Here you can see the streaks on
the water. ... |
 |
| Lucky Marc! The wind has come
forward leaving Bill (yellow) in Marc's wind shadow. ... |
 |
| And before Bill can fully
recover from this blow ... ... |
 |
| ... Dave chokes him off a second
time! ... |
 |
| Dave is now sitting 2nd, having
benefitted from being to windward and closer to the new wind coming in. ... |
 |
| Al's pole (l) is now too low for the
increased ... ... |
 |
| ... wind that has come in, but
Marc will ... ... |
 |
| ... will hold off ... ... |
 |
| ... the snapping pack without
having to ... ... |
 |
| ... give room to anyone. ... |
 |
|
Tsk! Tsk! Marc (l) seems to be making a very wide
rounding here, I think to try to stay out of the intense wind shadow
from all those boats just astern. Sometimes, Marc and I disagree, but
the guy on the tiller always gets the final say and the crew accepts
this happily. In these situations, I have found it
virtually always pays to get the board down, gybe right at the mark,
cut it close, let the spi flog to leeward and sheet in to sail a close
reach until we're out of the doldrums. Then
we can get back to the spi. This keeps me less stressed than sitting
down to leeward of a clump of boats that are almost sure to get wind
before me and pass us. Still, the wind has
backed about 30° which, if it holds, will make this next reach a
virtual run. We shall see, I guess.
... |
 |
| What a mess! Marc (3854) ... ... |
 |
| ... briefly gets the chute
filled, but never mind that! Why is Bill (yellow) not turning? ... |
 |
| I believe he may have hit the
mark and is now ... ... |
 |
| ... sailing to ... ... |
 |
| ... get clear and do ... ... |
 |
| ... his Penalty Turn. Marc
(3854) and Dave (282) struggle to find wind. |
| next photo page return to 06 Onts index |