I believe that's Scott Savage (6th from left) in 2nd with Bob Bradley (7th from right) and Ron Gall (5th from right) following at a respectful distance. All the leading Rebels are in this shot: (l to r) Woody, Mary, Dave, Uncle Al mostly hidden by Jim's main, Kevin, John, Neil, Al Vorel. Note that Al (Uncle) has responded to his fear of that very well "treed" little point near the south-east corner of the lake (see chart above) when it is or may become a windward shore, and has kept extremely well clear of it. But now he and Larry are looking forward to - they hope - being able to sail higher and faster the rest of the way to #4 which is hidden from view by the white spi with the red stripe.       - click here for full-size image

Did anyone say "horizon job"? I recall taking a quick glance to my left as we neared #4 and being truly impressed with how far ahead the leading Interlake had gotten. I think that little white speck (3rd from left) is Andy and Kirsten? But Clark Lake giveth, and Clark Lake taketh away. Only minutes later ...     - click here for full-size image

Are we having fun yet??!!  As felt first on Al's bare back, the final beat is now a run. Both Al and (especially) Neil lost big-time on this: the rest of the Rebel fleet that had been well back closed right in as they brought a little easterly breeze with them. In the background of this shot, we can see the 3-4-5 boats of the Wayfarer fleet - Mike Austerberry, Mike Anspach and John Kolstoe - working their way towards mark #3 on what is now a beat.

Al shows off the world's most sensitive back as he and Larry eagerly watch the westerly breeze inching closer. When that hits us well before the others, I thought, we will get all of our lead back and perhaps more. But wait! Not so fast!!!! Instead of us getting the breeze first, the boats directly behind us got it a good half-minute before we did! Hard to fathom that one! I thought I had seen it all in my 50+ years of racing, but this was perhaps the unkindest cut of all.

But still, I can't blame any of this for ultimately losing the race to Dave and Shannon who had been buried half-way up the third leg but made the most of the opportunities that the odd winds presented them with. Once the "new" wind settled in, Larry and I still had a nice little lead over 2nd-place Dave with a steady breeze, good boat speed and no pointing problems. All I had to do to stay ahead of Dave was to cover him to the finish. How could I have been so stupid, I asked myself and Larry after the race, as to tack for the line before Dave did??!!

And then I remembered: The finish line was set up near #6, our original windward mark, and I wasn't sure whether the line was between #6 and the raft, or between the little red ball and the raft - the SI's had mentioned both (after some - later - study it became clear to me that the "if present" part had to refer only to the inflatable red ball). Larry assured me it was the ball, but I wanted to make doubly sure and tacked to lay #6. There I shoved our nose over the "line", got no beep, bore away and apologized to Larry for having doubted his wisdom. Anyway, despite my having luffed head to wind at #6 in my unsuccessful finish attempt, we were still ...

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