| Wayfarer
Midwinters Lake Eustis Sailing Club * February 2-4 , 2007 Friday: race 3.2 pics by Andy Douma |
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| Riding a nice puff and Marc's
superb spinnaker work, SHADES
is pulling away - with a slight windward heel to neutralize the helm. ... |
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| Spinnaker problems aboard the Chick'n are handled relatively
calmly but are proving costly what with ... ... |
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| ... two other boats so near.
Geoff (9483) has moved into 2nd place while Dave has taken advantage of
this opportunity... ... |
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| ... to gybe to port and move
into the best strategic position to the left of the other two boats. ... |
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| Jeff Baker is moving very well
and makes it ... ... |
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... through to leeward of Peter
Hylen (2198) who has another problem: Gale Shoemaker (4106) may soon
blanket him. If I were Jeff, I would be tempted to gybe here, if I
could do so without fouling Butch. That would get me out of the
disturbed air from the three boats astern.
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Panoramic view: Al (red spi)
"covers" by staying between his nearest pursuers and the next mark.
Geoff (blue and white spi) seems to have found happiness (i.e. more
wind) over on the right and has pulled away into a clear 2nd, leaving
Dave (no spi) and Richard (yellow hull) to fight over 3rd. 2nd-place
finisher in each of the first two races, Joe De Brincat is beginning to
recover from a sub-par first beat and is now lying 5th. - for full view of this pic, click here
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| Janice switches the pole over to
complete Butch's gybe as the latter has moved past Jeff and Peter (yellow hull) and is also strategically well placed by being to their left. ... |
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| Tony Krauss, even without a
spinnaker, has moved well on this run and remains a threat to all the
leaders except perhaps, Al. - for full view of this pic, click here ... |
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| The boats on the right side do
seem to be getting better breeze: (l
to r) Jim Heffernan, Jeff, Peter ... |
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| (r
to l) Eddie Kraft, Greg Murphy and the sweetie ... |
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| 2nd-place Geoff and Ted have
tacked right at the leeward mark, and Al and Marc have tacked to
loosely cover. Theoretically, they should be to windward and ahead for
a proper cover, and will now foot for speed to try to reach the really
safe position. ... |
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| Ah! Geoff has tacked. How nice
for us, since we can now tack to position ourselves directly between
Geoff and the next mark. ... |
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Yellow vs. yellow: A very close
race between Richard (10139) and Dave near the windward mark. Dave has
set himself up well because, when he tacks for the mark any second now,
he will have starboard on Richard who will also need a port hitch
before he can round the windward mark.
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| Dave and Kevin start the
extremely short offset leg, having outduelled Richard on this exchange. ... |
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| Starting the second run, Richard
lies 4th but will have to contend with Joe (red hull) whose comeback
after a poor first beat continues. Both Joe and Butch (3951) have moved
past Jim Heffernan (white hull) on this beat. ... |
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| As Butch and Jim round, Joe
briefly helps Richard by not letting his main out to where it should be. ... |
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But the reprieve is temporary,
and now they're neck and neck. I read in a book somewhere that, on a
run, the bottom of the spi should be perpendicular to the water, and
Nick (red hull) has that happening in textbook fashion. Michele's
spinnaker foot is angled in towards their bow, perhaps because the clew
is being held lower?
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| As Geoff and Ted cruise down the
run in a solid 2nd, Mike and Chuck have tacked for the windward mark,
but ... ... |
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| ... will now have to watch that
they don't foul Joe who is on starboard. ... |
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| "Phew! That was close. Any more
of them under there???" ... |
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| While Joe and Richard duel on
starboard, Dave (under Richard's jib) has gybed towards the left where
he will have clear air and the strategic advantage if/when he meets
these two at the leeward mark. ... |
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| One of the club's many Laser
sailors enjoys a bit of spectating in style as he watches ... ... |
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... the leaders approach the
leeward mark: Al maintains a comfortable lead over Geoff, who in turn,
is well clear of Jim Heffernan (2458), Richard (10139) and Joe (1115) -
not to mention Dave Moring out of the picture to the left - all of whom
are fighting over 3rd place. - for full view of this pic, click here
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| No one close in front or behind,
Scott and Lori enjoy a relaxed, yet very well balanced-looking run. |