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Clark Lake Fall Regatta Clark Lake YC * Sept. 24-25, 2005 Race 1 pics - part 1 by Dan Hockenberry |
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| Boats starting to
leave the
club as seen from mark #5 where the RC is setting up
give us a course
of ... ... |
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| ... 4-3-2-1-5 with a final beat from #5 to a
finish at #4. ... |
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| Photographer and
father of
Rebel 4180, Dan Hockenberry, keeps a caring eye on his
baby. Knowing
Dan was watching ... ... |
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| ... we decided to
dazzle
him
with one of our finest roll tacks. Oops, Al accidentally
cleated the
main and nearly capsized! Now ... ... |
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| ... Marc will have
several
gallons of water to sponge out of the boat. ... |
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| Chester and Gail Javis
prepare to sail W739 as part of ... ... |
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| ... the Rebel fleet. Start time
approaches and even
though the present oscillation in the wind favours ... ... |
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| ... the pin end ... ... |
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... where Brian
Main
and
Mike Wolf (4160) have just gotten the perfect
start and closed
the door on an attempted port tack start by Jim
Quiniff (4179), Uncle
Al and Marc (4180, white hull near the RC boat) have
stuck with their
plan to start at the RC boat end where they will be
able to tack
whenever they feel the need.
... |
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Seconds later,
the
return
oscillation lifts the starboard boats as Jim (4179)
finally finds a
hole in the starboard parade and squeezes across in
front of John
Weakley (4162). Larry and Patti Schmida (4191) hold a
nice safe leeward
position ahead of Dave Nickels with Todd Schmida while
Al and Marc
(4180) have lifted out into some nice clear air.
... |
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Dave (4176)
tacks to
clear
his air and will cross astern of Al (4180) who has the
luxury of being
able to hold the favoured tack
(starboard) in nicely clear
air. Since Dave is the
National Champion and has to be the favourite here, Al
and Marc
contemplate covering Dave loosely (without sitting on
his wind), but
decide to wait a bit in hopes of a starboard knock
that will favour
port tack. In the event, Dave tacked soon after
crossing behind us, no
doubt recognizing that sailing across the course where
the other tack
is taking you almost directly to the mark, is a high
risk/low reward
proposition.
... |
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| The Sunfish start sees
Derrick Fries (11070) get the perfect pin end start
while a daring but
risky try at a port start ... ... |
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| ... ends in failure
for
Donald Jones (8). ... |
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| Two port tackers are
stuck
on a very bad tack here, as the three starboard tackers
are nearly
laying the windward mark. ... |
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|
As the Rebels
and the
lone
Mutineer (1344) approach the windward mark (#4),
Interlake leaders
Jamie Jones (1267) and Bob Bradley (1332) have
completed the short jog
across the lake from 4 to 3 at the east end of Clark
Lake and are now
starting the long run to #2 at the far west end of the
lake.
... |
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Quick! Who has
the
right
of way here: Dan Norton in the Sunfish (r) or
Jamie in
Interlake 1267? If you said Dan, you are right since
Dan is on
starboard while Jamie is on port tack. Meanwhile, Tim
Marriott (1268)
and Bob Sagan (628) have gybed onto their run as well.
... |
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Rebels on the
run: (l
to r) Al (4180) directly ahead of 2nd-place
Jim, Dave, Larry, Ron,
John Weakley, Brian and Jeff. On this run with its
occasional shifts to
quite an angle off the south shore, Al and Marc were
leery
of getting too near either shore: the windward,
wind-blocking shore,
and
the lee shore where the wind begins to lift over the
shore well before
it reaches it. Here the leaders are making the turn to
a beam reach as
they pass ...
... |
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... Eagle Point.
In
this
short stretch of beam reaching, staying away from
shores is even more
likely to pay off. I know, I know! Boats have made
spectacular gains
near the shore in such conditions, but the odds are
against it and I
would only try this as a last resort and never while
in the lead: make
the other guy take the chances!!
... |
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Marc and Al
dawdle
along
well off shore with a nice lead until they feel they
can safely cut the
corner of the lee shore around which mark 2 will soon
come into view.
On the
300-yard dead run to #2 they stay close to shore
because in this
section of the lake, the wind is now blowing parallel
to it which often
means stronger winds nearer the shore. But alas, one
of the
frustrations of
sailing a run is that ...
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... guys like
Dave
(4176)
and Jim (4179) can bring beautiful gusts like this one
with them from
astern!! It was a nervous time for Marc and me, and a
certain number of
nasty words passed our lips as we urged the wind to
bloody well hurry
up and get to us!! Ultimately, we relaxed a bit by
reminding ourselves
that, all in all, we'd still rather be here than
there, and we ended up
making it around #2 onto the fairly short beat
to #1 just ahead
of Dave and Jim. While our lead had shrunk to next to
nothing, we did
still hold the important advantage of being able to
sail whichever tack
we wanted in clear air while forcing Jim and Dave to
either sail in our
dirt or tack onto (what we hoped was) the less
favoured tack. With the
Interlakes up ahead as our guides to upcoming shifts
and areas of best
wind, we were able to grab all the good stuff first,
and once more made
our
lead a bit more comfortable to extent that we were
soon able to make
the safety play of sailing to stay between Dave and
Jim and the
upcoming mark. The subsequent reach from #1 to a
starboard rounding of
#5 was again a matter of staying away from the shores.
... |
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Mike Sharkey
combined
with
two other Interlake helms, all three of whom usually
sail solo and
spinnaker-less. Here they are on their way to #2 and
looking well
trimmed. Boring, isn't it, boys??? We could make life
a lot more
exciting with the spinnaker none of us has ever flown!
More adventurous
pictures of Interlake 1236 would eventually follow!!
... |
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| John Weakley and ... ... |
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| ... Eric Robb are very
nicely trimmed on their beam reach as are ... ... |
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| ... Woody Woodruff and
Dorothy Rose. |
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