Race 1.03
photos by Sharon Nowak, Janice Ryder, Mike Sharkey, John Hopson, Robert Mosher
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The final few seconds of the Interlake countdown.
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The way John Hopson saw us from ...
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... the Beach Bar or ...
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... points further east along the ...
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... north shore.
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The Interlake start: the wind - such as it is - has shifted back so that we now have a beat towards ...
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... mark #6 which has been moved east to a position off the yacht club. This way, Bruce hopes to make our 6-4-3-finish course short enough to keep race length to an acceptable 50 minutes or so.
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Two reasons why I like what Andy Nixon (1318) and the other early port tackers are doing:
1. port is the tack that keeps you closer to the start-6 rhumbline, and
2. port keeps you well away from the windward shore and its attendant potential wind blockages
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Lots of heel on I-1376 (Bryan Bradley), presumably to reduce wetted surface and promote desirable sail shape
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Joe, too, is heeling his Wayfarer for ...
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... the same ...
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... reasons!
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A few seconds before the Rebel start: Our plan in 4180 was to give up the favoured port (pin) end and start on port tack right next to the RC raft. A fine plan except that the wind died pretty much completely a few seconds later, and we had to tack to starboard to avoid drifting into the raft.
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Meanwhile, the galley slave gets put to panic stations as Joe DeBrincat suddenly realizes that the Rebel start, which he sees as the end of his legal paddling time, is less than a minute away, and that a three-minute sequence won't leave Joe much time to drift into a decent starting position. Actually, Rules penalties in this regard don't kick in until the Prep Signal, so Brian could have paddled for one minute into the Wayfarer sequence.
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To add insult to injury, the starting Rebel fleet (4161 Mary Vorel, 4162 Neil Robb and Al Vorel yellow deck)
is about to make I-1417's (Jimmy Ward) slow start ...
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... even ...
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... slower as Dave Nickels (4176) and Al Vorel (3914) ghost on by.
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In the wider-angle perspective above, you can see, on the left, that Dave (4176) and Neil (4162) are moving out nicely, though not as nicely as Al Vorel (yellow boat, middle). Being obsessed with getting onto port tack a.s.a.p., Uncle Al (4180, just to the left of the raft) is about to tack, only to have to tack again to avoid the raft. This time when Al tacked back to port, he at last cleared the raft!   - click here for full-size image
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Sharon Nowak got lots of lovely close-ups by being on or near the north shore. Dave and Shannon pick up a ...
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... smidgen of breeze.
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Next in line is Dave's son, Kevin, with crew Ryan Haslett.
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Al and Karel Vorel are moving along nicely just to windward and astern of Kevin.
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John and Phil in Winsome.

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