George Blanchard and Mike Codd got off to a great start and it was a race between them and John and Dolores deBoer in the early going. After steadily losing ground off the start, Uncle Al commissioned a weed flush and started to move a bit better. After looking for and finding better wind than George and John, Al S. and Bob Frick made it a four-way race as the boats neared the windward mark (#5). John however, was clever enough to stay right as he approached #5 while Al and George sailed into weeds by going more up the middle. In the end, John and Dolores rounded with a nice 100-metre lead over Bob Frick who came in along the port laymen with a narrow lead over Al and Roger. The latter made a smart departure from accepted wisdom by tacking back to port when they could have laid the mark on starboard. Their reasoning was that even though the long close-hauled course on starboard towards #1 looked to be a one-tack beat from #5, they would be following the whole way in the dirty air of Bob Frick and, right off his bow, an apparently inexperienced racer who had already lost 5 minutes to the leading Wayfarers on the first leg. Furthermore, there were healthy ripples on the water nearer to Kentucky Point (see chart above). The 50 metres put in on port tack proved to be a wise investment as Al had soon passed Bob Frick who was being smothered by the dawdling Rebel, and shortly thereafter the glassy waters past Eagle Point engulfed John in a large dead spot as Al motored past with a wind of his own.
It was at about this point, that the skies opened up as forecast and the jib tickers immediately became useless. That was when Al remembered the can of non-friction spray that Tom Wharton had given him for spraying the tickers if rain was expected. Such "if only" thought were promptly interrupted by Roger who was asking if I had seen John deBoer. For a second, Al couldn't understand what Roger meant - John was bow to bow with us, about 100 yards to leeward, wasn't he? Er, no, he's less than two feet to leeward... Before we knew it, John had gurgled through to leeward and by the time the rain stopped as we neared #1, John was ahead again by about 50 metres.

The short beat to #2 brought increased pressure and we got to enjoy some serious (if brief) hiking. Here, Al definitely got the better of the shifts and John's 50-metre edge was soon history. The boats appeared to be about even when Al finally tacked to avoid the backwind of a seriously pinching Rebel. Al would have tacked sooner but the lovely female crew aboard the Rebel was making the dirty air more palatable... Anyway, Al was now calling starboard on John who went for it but had to bear away wildly at the last second to avoid Al's bow which was aiming for the aft third of John's boat. Muttering "You owe us one!", Al continued on for a few lengths before tacking back to port. John meanwhile, in his frantic escape manoeuvres, had managed to sail down into the dirt of the pinching Rebel with the cute crew. By the time John had decided that he wouldn't lay #2, and tacked back across, Al was able to cross on port and round #2 in first place with John and Bob Frick close behind.
Seeing that several Rebels who had cut the corner on the way to Kentucky Point and #5, were totally becalmed, Roger and Al sailed straight downwind well past the point before gybing to go up the middle of the lake to #5. John, Bob, Mike Anspach, George Blanchard and Tony Krauss meanwhile were bringing fresh wind from astern. As they cut inside Al at the point, they were going to pass him if their wind held. But then they joined the ranks of the becalmed as Al held a fairly steady breeze and pulled away to a big win.

Meanwhile, George came out of the mess in 2nd around #5, a position that seemed pretty secure when John  hit #5 and took forever to do a 360 with his spi up - he may have added some more penalty turns for fouling a Rebel after that - I can't remember! But after that John and Dolores played the puffs beautifully to get right back into contention only a couple of lengths from George at #4. After that, John was not to be denied as he got past George and ended up with a comfortable 2nd over George and Mike.
It seemed that after yet another shore/beer break there would be no time for a third race before dinner - and it looked as though we would get more rain. But PRO, Bruce Nowak surprised us (pleasantly!!) by setting up for one more short race in the east half of the lake: