The Golf saga, part 2: Darlene Poosch rushed over to deliver the Tires Plus message as soon as we hit the dock (metaphorically speaking), and Marc - nice guy that he is - volunteered to do the phoning while Al attacked the free beer. Sadly, we had been out of touch just long enough to miss possible parts delivery for today. The part would be there early on Monday however, and we should have the car back by 4 p.m. Monday.

After a short lunch, it was back out for races 3 and 4 of the day. It was still pretty cool but Marc took advantage of our being hove to in the starting area by having a little post-prandial nap. Note that we (usually) heave to with the centreboard full up, which not only gives Marc a nice arm rest but also makes us drift sideways fast enough that the rudder automatically points to windward, something it won't do if you heave to with the board down. Heaving to with the board up also provides a nice margin of safety in case a nasty puff should hit, since this way the boat won't trip over the board.

Another thing this photo shows nicely is our ancient mainsheet swivel cleat and our nice, thin mainsheet. Both are - among other things - safety features. We went back to the swivel cleat that came with the used W3854 in 1977 after finding that its Harken counterpart was too high, i.e. the cleat is (was?) on a much longer plate, and the mainsheet had the tendency to cleat itself in awkward moments such as while we were completing tacks in puffs. A couple of capsizes later, we went back to this little lovely which is set up such that the helm has to make a conscious effort to cleat the mainsheet, and any pull from the hiked out helm automatically uncleats the sheet without having to pull up.

The thin mainsheet may be a little too thin for some (5mm softbraid from 1981) but my intention here is to remind sailors that they should definitely have a mainsheet that is thin enough to run through all its blocks very easily, so that when the sheet is let go in an emergency, it will run freely and immediately ease wind pressure on the main!!

See! I'll bet Mike Murto is hove to with his board down (no sign of major leeward drift near the rudder!), and has to actually supervise his tiller - or bungee cord it to leeward. Although Mike is pretty relaxed here, he could be even more relaxed if the board was full up! Of course, somebody has to keep a good lookout and warn people approaching if they don't seem to be noticing the rapid leeward drift!!

... keep clear of LF27 who is roaring in on starboard. V137 probably didn't mind Butch tacking too close here since Butch left V137 just nicely enough room to tack around the finish mark and edge out LF27 for second place in the Scow fleet. Notice Nick Seraphinoff (dark blue hull) approaching the line for his 3rd-place finish. Also notice that this picture nicely shows how the Scow main dwarfs the W main!!

This was a very interesting Rules situation. LF27 coming up on starboard ranked as an Obstruction to Butch who was entitled, under Rule 19.1, to request "room to tack" but would have had to do so in plenty of time to give V137 a chance to respond. In this (rare) instance, I would - in Butch's situation - have warned V137 that I would need room to tack as soon as I had passed the mark, and then done exactly as Butch did, tack when there was room enough for V137 to also tack around the mark.

Race #6: Uncle Al and Marc were really in the groove by now. They again got a good start, nailed the shifts and puffs nicely, and were never really threatened. By the start of the second beat, they were a good half leg up on the fleet. Life never became dull for a moment, however. We raced to stay ahead of the leading Scows down the run, and rounded in good form, about 20m. in front of the leading Scow who in turn was about 3 lengths up on his closest rival.

The wind had backed about 20º so that port tack was distinctly favoured. Nonetheless, Al and Marc - deciding to do for others what we would have them do for us - tacked away to let the leading Scows fight it out in clear air. A kind gesture that almost resulted in disaster! 100 yards later, we tacked back to our preferred port tack. As Al sat down after a nice, crisp tack back to port, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Ah, the second-place Scow was crossing our transom on starboard. Something niggled at the back of Al's brain... oh, shit!!! Al quickly leaned into the boat to see if the leading Scow had tacked to cover. He had indeed - and was on a bow-to-bow collision course with SHADES at full speed about 8 feet away. He hadn't seen us, either. Marc later said that he thought this was our best move of the entire regatta: Shoving the tiller hard over, Al yelled "Tack!". Marc came across like it had been planned minutes in advance. A lovely, controlled tack, hiking out, and Marc saying: "Watch out for his mainsail!" "Hell", thought Al, "we have a least a foot between the boats!!" And full marks for sportsmanship to the Scow sailors who took time out from a very small lead, to lean from their hiked out positions into their boat, look under their main and apologize for not having seen/warned us. Nice guys! Thanks, fellows! It didn't take long for the Scow to pass us, at which point we finally settled back onto our long port tack but kept a better lookout!!!

Our hostess, Dotty Murto, was less than delighted when a proposal to move the dinner out of the cool, damp tent and into a proper hall, the Masons' Lodge, was voted down by the sailors. Unfortunately, the Hall wasn't licensed, so the sailors made the obvious sailors' choice! The tent was a bit "rustic" but the chicken dinner was still great - especially with ample amounts of beer. No such problem next year as the beautiful new LESC clubhouse will be in operation!!