| Wayfarer
Midwinters Lake Eustis Sailing Club * February 2-4 , 2007 Friday: race 1.1 pics by Andy Douma |
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| Friday,
just after 10 AM: Our very capable RC began to set the course
for our one race before lunch. ... |
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| Al and Marc (3854) try out their
new jib - a new design created by Heider Funck last summer in Heider's
latest incarnation: Hansa Sails. The not-too-easy-to-please Marc
pronounced it to be a fine combination of forgiving and high-pointing. ... |
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| Tony and Mary (4105) check out
about 8 to 10 knots of westerly breeze prior to the start. ... |
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| Big change here from his C Scow
for Scott Tillema. Lori looks pleased with her new crew, and ... ... |
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| ... it's mutual! ... |
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| All in all, it's a lovely day ... ... |
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| ... for racing. Gale Shoemaker
and Francois Simon cross the photography boat on port, while Pete Hylen (yellow) and the Minsons, Butch and Janice (blue) sail off on starboard. ... |
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| SHADES
owner, Uncle Al, will get first turn at the helm, even though crew, Marc, (with Michele Parish) is the defending champion. ... |
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| (l
to r) Uncle Al with Marc, Lori with Scott, Geoff Edwards with
Ted Gadd ... |
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| (l
to r) Peter Hylen with Dave Hepting, Butch Minson with wife,
Janice ... |
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| Nautical thumb twiddling
continues as the RC fine tunes a windward-leeward course with an offset
mark at the windward mark, two sausages plus a windward leg to the
finish; winds more or less out of the west. ... |
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| Jim and Linda Heffernan appear
all set to go. ... |
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| As do Joe De Brincat and Nick
Seraphinoff. ... |
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| Mary Abel keeps the proverbial
"good lookout" while helm, Tony Krauss, ponders the meaning of life. ... |
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| Peter Hylen and Dave Hepting
sail a well balanced ship. ... |
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| We're into the final 30 seconds,
and a ... ... |
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| ... late 15° back in the
wind direction has seriously favoured the "pin" end. Butch (blue hull)
has the favoured end locked up, while Al (right off his transom) plans
to tack right on the gun in order to take the earliest possible
advantage of the shift. ... |
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| Tack completed, Al just squeezes
across in front of several starboard tackers including Dave Moring with
Kevin Rankin in 10245, Joe and Nick (red hull) as well as Richard and
Michele (just visible under Al's boom). ... |
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| While most of the rest of the
fleet is now stuck on starboard, Al and Marc are pleased that they were
first to respond to the shift. ... |
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| Joe (1115), Tony (4105) and
Butch (3951) tack about a minute later and set off in pursuit of ... ... |
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|
... Al (3rd from left) who is
not feeling too sanguine about this turn of events: the wind is
continuing to back, and the boats that tacked later are now on the
inside of a persistent shift to will max out at about 30° and leave
Al on the outside looking in. By the time Al wondered aloud, "Should we
bite the bullet and tack?", Marc sensibly responded: "Nah! The shift
seems to have gone as far as it'll go, so we might as well stay out
here in clear air." Which we did, while sailing as high and fast as we
could while trying to minimize the damage. If we had tacked across, all
we could hope to do was sail into disturbed air and water, and thus go
slower! - for full
view of this pic, click here
... |
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| Note how the inside boats here
are already getting the lift sooner than those on the outside. |