Poker Run

With perfect temperature, but no wind, we gathered at Lake Townsend Yacht Club on October 26, to prepare for the Poker Run Race.  The Poker Run is a sailing race around the perimeter of Lake Townsend complicated by the requirement to pick up a playing card or touch each of 6 marks during the journey.  In all previous runnings of the Poker Run, I have been PRO and watched in envy as the competitors enjoyed the races.  This year, Andy Forman was coerced into taking my place as PRO so that I could sail with my crew, Shauna Rankin-Byrne. 

At noon, the PRO began the 3 minute sequence to start the race in very light wind.  The two 420s started first. The lone Wayfarer and four Scots began the second start. The wind puffed and lulled during the race.  Andy and Sean noticed that the sailors were progressing more slowly than anticipated, so they quickly drove the SCAT boat to the farthest mark and moved it closer.  The race lasted exactly the recommended one hour.  Competitors who stayed away from the tree lined shores tended to keep the wind in their sails more consistently.

Having a prior commitment, one of the 420s headed to shore after the first race.  With only one 420 racing, the PRO decided to combine the two starts into one for the second race.  The second race began with a radical wind shift at the start.  It was a port tack start and straight to the first mark. The wind quickly increased in velocity and filled in all over the lake.  As my crew reached out to touch the second mark, she lost her balance and fell backwards over the thwart.  She lay like a turtle with her arms and legs in the air, holding on to the main sheet!  She hadn’t touched the mark, so we had to return.  We were so busy laughing that it took a while for us to return to the mark.  During that time, Tom Bews with Annette Grefe in a Scot caught up to us, passed us and touched the mark.  Now we were in catch up mode.   We tried and failed many times to sail better than Tom and Annette, but they remained in the lead.  On a downwind leg, in light wind, with Shauna standing just behind the mast flying the spinnaker, we were sailing by the lee and one of the infamous Lake Townsend auto gybes startled me.  Now Shauna was stuck between the vang and the front deck! Being the complete trooper that she is, she moved the spinnaker pole to the other side, and tried to wiggle through the vang.  Failing that, she climbed through the jib sheets and walked around the front of the mast, smiling and laughing the whole time. On the final reach to the finish, we stayed high and gradually gained on Tom/Annette.  In the last 20 yards we passed them and finished a boat length ahead!

Back on shore, after derigging the sailboats and putting away the SCAT boat, we gathered for pizza at the shelter.  During joking and teasing and discussing sailing adventures, the poker hands were completed. The scoring, based on the finishes of the two sailing races and the ranking of the poker hand, determined that AnnMarie and Shauna earned bragging rights as the 2024 Fall Poker Run winner.

The RC team consisted of Andy Forman and Sean Brady

The sailors included:

Flying Scots

David Duff and Matt Felmlee

Tom Bews and Annette Grefe

Ron Washburn and Hudson Barker

JC Aller and John Russell

Wayfarer

AnnMarie Covington and Shauna Rankin-Byrne

420s

Preston Miller and James Lewis

William Brady singlehand