Butch Minson's lack of crew (weight) gave him a speed edge that just about cancelled out his lack of spinnaker. But the real fun was just beginning as a number of the leading and faster Scows were catching up and began to overtake about 200 m. from the leeward mark. Uncle Al wisely stowed the camera at this point and concentrated on damage control. With nearly 10 boats squeezing ever closer together as we neared the mark, no one seemed able to break through. There was a certain amount of discussion going on between boats. I think some of the W's failed to understand that while the Scows overtaking to leeward were not permitted to "luff", they did not have to sail the course straight to the mark since they had established a proper course higher than that by tacking downwind all the way down the run. As windward boats, we had to keep clear as long as they were not sailing above their proper course.
 
Miraculously, Jim Higgins had held onto his wind despite the wall of sails behind him, just long enough to round onto beat #2 inside the pack. Two Scows established a late overlap to the outside of Jim and Uncle Al and Nick were next - outside of the two leading Scows. In one of his best moves of the series, Al put the board full down 50 m. from the mark, and invited Marc to douse the spinnaker a bit early - Stuart Walker's "Slow down and win"!!! While the leading Scows (and Nick!) were stuck with rounding outside Jim, Al had slowed down just enough that he was able to luff up at the mark, shave a couple of Scow transoms and start the beat in 2nd place, just behind Jim Higgins. Buoyed up by the success of their manoeuvre, Al and Marc proceeded to storm into a lead that they would not give up.

A really close finish here as Nick approaches the line on port and makes a nice, crisp tack to leeward and ahead of Gale. A nastier guy - like Uncle Al - would, in Gale's shoes, have aimed about a boat length to leeward of the finish mark (changing course far enough away to avoid breaking Rule 16.2, naturally!). This might well have forced Nick to bear away to cross behind the starboard boat (since tacking a length to leeward of the finish mark would hardly make sense and since he probably would not have been able to cross the starboard boat, either!)

Ellen Hill and her second crew, Valerie McDonald, who took ill shortly after this photo was taken and had to go ashore on a rescue boat. Nothing serious, and Valerie was at the club again by the next day. But meanwhile, Ellen was left to single-hand for race 4 during which she fell onto her mainsheet swivel block which then wedged the mainsheet into the cleated in position. A nasty situation in these healthy winds! Nerve-wracking when you can't ease the main!! Ellen had to get help to unwedge the block and took a DNF in that race.

Race 4: No pics during the race in this one where Uncle Al started at the favoured windward end at full speed and right at the gun - perhaps even slightly before. Let us say that we would not have been surprised to hear 3854 recalled but the RC was kind to us - besides which, they were busy recalling Jim Higgins who had started to leeward and ahead of us, and come to think of it, may have been blocking the RC's view of the other end of the line.

Nick and Frank (above) may have been ahead of Al and Marc occasionally up the first beat, but in the end, it was SHADES crossing ahead of Nick to win her 4th straight race in fairly convincing fashion.

It becomes apparent that the RC showed excellent judgment of relative course lengths required by the two classes, as Nick (864) and the first C Scow, Andy Burdick, cross at just about the same time!

Gale did hold onto 3rd in this race, ahead of Hubert, while Butch Minson was off his form slightly with a 5th after his two straight seconds - perhaps suffering from lack of crew as the winds continued to pick up. Bob Hart and Charlie Williams were in better form this race, scoring a 6th over Geoff Edwards and Pat Reardon, while Richard Johnson (last year's Spinnaker Fleet winner!) continued to struggle in 8th place. Completing the top 10 were single-hander, Hank Van Twyver, and W1904 where Jim McIntyre gave guest, Brian Stevenson, a turn at the helm with good results.