On this fine Saturday morning, 11 boats started at the NBYC harbour side just after 11 am in sunshine and 4 to 5 knot northerly, somewhat shifty, breezes.  
 
Dave and Carol in Banshee had a good start followed closely by skipper Marc and Al in Shades as the fleet crossed Callander Bay.  By the time we reached the first mark, Marc/Al had crept close to the lead with John and Delores close behind in Silver Fox as both gave chase to Dave and Carol. These three were closely followed by Fred Black and new crew, Rob Sevigny, in Rusty Scupper and Dwight and Pat in Eclairelle.
 
The trip between the islands was done using chutes, with lead boats dropping them as they entered the channel to the main lake.  The variable wind in the channel allowed a good part of the fleet to catch up to the leaders as they made their way out to the south shore of the Lake Nipissing.  At that point. the little fleet of Ws encountered the first squall coming in from the northwest which brought heavy winds and driving rain.  For some crews this was their first race and their first squall. but all of the boats handled the challenge and some even moved up a couple positions during the turmoil.

Then from riches to rags – the wind dropped completely. The entire fleet sat for 15 to 20 minutes in a drifter before a very light wind, building from the southwest, came and got the discouraged gang, who only half an hour before had been in the midst of a tempest, going again.

Marc and Al in Shades caught the new breeze first as the rest were drifting.  They rounded the outer mark (J5) some 7 to 8 minutes ahead of John and Dolores and Dwight and Pat, the defending NCR champs having moved up to an apparent 3rd place.  Their success with winds shifts and being in the right place at the right time gave them and Andrew and Michele in Njord a chance to pounce over Dave and Carol who were now in 6th position with Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk sniffing close behind in Mystic.

Meanwhile, sly Fred Black had been working his way up the shore line and surprised us when he came out and rounded the outer mark ahead of several boats in 3rd spot.

With Shades well in front, a shifty and variable, light breeze carried the main part of the fleet downwind and through the channel, with positions 2nd through 7th changing every few minutes depending on who caught the puff of the moment.

As “luck” would have it (luck for the rest of the fleet, that is), Marc and Al who had been so far in the lead, entered Callander Bay to be greeted by absolutely no wind.  So they sat, drifted and waited as the rest of the fleet to caught up.  They were the only ones caught by this stop in the wind as the rest of the fleet were carried along on another building breeze from the west.  The reason for that building breeze became apparent in another 20 minutes or so.

Seven Ws entered the bay in another cat/mouse game of position swapping.  John and Dolores temporarily took over the lead before Marc and Al sailed over top, stole their wind and regained the lead by only a slim margin.  Dave/Carol were close behind and managed to overtake John and Delores, dropping well below to stay out of their bad air.

Andrew had taken a higher line entering the bay, as had Fred and Dwight which later proved to be costly for a couple reasons:  1. they had to drop down more to get to the next mark than did the three lead boats, and 2. they were closer to the incoming squall!
 
Squall #2 overtook the back part of the fleet and rolled over the entire bay, catching the lead boats just as they were about to round mark 2.  All three had seen the squall coming and had prudently lowered their spinnakers and had things sorted out for the beat to the north when the squall hit, accompanied by a sharp clap of thunder and bolt of lightning.

Further back in the fleet, Ross and Breanne Jamieson in Puddle Duck and Fred and Rob in Rusty Scupper were too late in taking down their spinnakers, and got caught.  Both dumped and subsequently retired from the race. Lori Beehler and Jason Hassard in Green Side Up decided that the lightning was too much excitement for one day and also retired.

Dwight and Pat, along Andrew and Michelle, also were very wary of the lightning and headed to a nearby beach with the idea of waiting out the storm.  Andrew and Michelle actually landed Njord.  Dwight and Pat, however, saw that the storm was passing, so immediately headed back to the race, but not before Sue and Steph in Mystic had overtaken and moved into 4th place.

Meanwhile, the leaders found that as they battled to north in the bay, the winds were starting to drop – not 10 minutes after passing the ‘eye’ of the storm and seeing ¼” hail stones bouncing off their decks. Al later mentioned that he noticed how the hail stung when it hit his face (I am glad of my wide rimmed hat!)

The next mark was hidden in the wind, rain and hail.  Marc and Al and John and Dolores took clues from Dave and Carol as to the general direction of the next mark but it was Dolores who first spotted the mark - all three boats would have overstood if not for Dolores’ good eyes. John dropped down first and within a few seconds the other two boats had clued in and did the same.

Rounding this windward mark in rapid succession were Shades, Silver Fox and Banshee, while the rest of the fleet that was left in the race were just rounding the previous mark after coping with the storm.
 
Dave and Carol headed due south toward the next mark while Mark and Al and John and Dolores, mistaken in their direction, headed southeast back toward the previous mark. This gave Dave and Carol a chance to capitalize on the error.  It wasn’t until about half-way through the leg, that the two lead boats realized their error and started to correct.  Marc and Al managed to get back and rounded the final mark only 50 yards ahead of Dave/Carol who were now in 2nd, some 20 or so yards ahead of John and Dolores.

After that point, the winds started to drop noticeably – the closer to the finish, the lower the winds.  The first three boats managed to cross the line with some boat speed, but all the remaining boats were caught in a drifter that meant the few remaining boats would struggle in over the next half hour so.

That was the completion of a four-season race over the course of about 4½ hours. It isn’t often that one has a race featuring two squalls, two drifters, two bouts of very nice breezes, with thunder and lightning plus some hail thrown in for good measure. Even more fun was the fact that the 3 lead boats all finished within a couple minutes of each other.