What is this man (Marc Bennett of SHADES) doing in someone's else's W??? There is a story here: As their good deed of the month, Marc and Uncle Al decided to put up the mast on Nick Seraphinoff's W864 and rig the boat when there was - by 10:30 a.m. - no sign of Nick, who was staying in Orlando and had arrived from Detroit late the previous night. Nick's crew, Frank "Wayfarer Man" Goulay, would also be cutting it fine, being on a flight scheduled to land at 12:20 p.m. in Orlando from Ottawa, Ontario. All in all, we did a fairly commendable job of unloading golf bags, etc...

Our Principal Race Officer, Dave Williams, welcomes the competitors and fields questions about the SI's. Wayfarers and C Scows would share the same course area but the latter would sail a longer course to a more distant windward mark as shown below. Nick Seraphinoff was not here yet, so he missed the part where it was confirmed that the words "CLOSED GATE" on the diagram meant that you could not sail through the Start/Finish Line except to start or finish!!

The Scow is actually beginning to heel due to wind - another good sign! Defending champs, Gale Shoemaker and Don Poosch are looking good in 93 while Ellen Hill with Charlie Williams (3951) are still in cruising mode with Ellen sitting aft against the back tank. This is a comfortable position but slow for racing as it makes the stern drag too much (see above).