Meanwhile, Mark, John and Uncle Al have just rounded the leeward mark (off Al Nichols' bow - 3rd from right) a close 1-2-3 onto the final short beat to the finish. Al got lucky here, as both Mark and John held port tack for while longer and let him be the first to tack to a starboard tack that let him lay the finish line - for the time being, at least. Conventional wisdom would have had Mark tack early and get between his opponents and the finish line (camera position here).  - for full-size pic, click here

Having tacked to starboard and both now laying the finish line, Frank (l) and Dave are in a "foot race" to the line - barring major shifts - as Andrew and Lori complete their pretty-looking run. This is the last we'll see of Frank, photographically speaking, who rounded the leeward mark with as good a shot as anybody at 4th place. He ended up paying dearly for putting in his far shorter tack first, thus killing off all useful tacking options by hitting the lay line way too soon. He and Kim ultimately fell to a 7th-place finish, behind Dave (r).

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"Sometimes, Moses ..."  I have to confess that at the end of this race, I felt a bit like Moses must have felt in this joke where the Lord commanded Moses to do a bunch of stuff, which Moses promptly did to perfection. "There you go, Lord. All done," Moses said - at which point this huge bare foot came blasting out of the heavens, stomping Moses into the ground. Somewhat the worse for wear, Moses looked up and stammered, "But Lord, I did everything just exactly the way you asked me to. Why did you do this to me??" At which point the Lord made the reply I began with: "Sometimes, Moses, you just piss me off!"

At the leeward mark, Michele and I had done things they way we were supposed to. We had made a lovely quick tack around the mark onto a starboard tack that was letting us lay the mark, while Mark and John put their entire lead (and considerably more) out to windward where it could easily have been useless to them. In the end, the Lord's foot came down: we got knocked near the finish line where Mark and John could still lay the line but we could not. True, there had been somewhat better pressure out further on the just completed leg, but what a risk to take! By the time we reached the line after tacking, Mark and Paul (above) had scored their third straight win. I know how Moses must have felt all right. Not that it would have made any difference. Mark and Paul had captured the Don Rumble Memorial Trophy by a huge and very well earned margin! Congratulations, Mark and Paul!!!

And in doing so, they had also taken a big lead in our Nationals series which would continue the next day.

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Dwight and Pat, too, get the Lord's foot. Here they have positioned themselves in textbook fashion where the law of averages says good things should happen to them on a very shifty day such as this: If they get a lift, then they lay the line and beat the boats to windward and astern, and if everyone gets knocked, Dwight tack and cross. In the event, neither of these things happened. Instead a severely angled line saw them lose a very close race to both ...

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