| Wayfarer
Midwinters Lake Eustis Sailing Club * February 2-4 , 2007 Friday: race 1.1 pics by Andy Douma |
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| Friday, just after 10 AM: Our very
capable RC began to set the course for our one race before
lunch. ... |
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| Al and Marc (3854) try out
their new jib - a new design created by Heider Funck last
summer in Heider's latest incarnation: Hansa Sails. The
not-too-easy-to-please Marc pronounced it to be a fine
combination of forgiving and high-pointing. ... |
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| Tony and Mary (4105) check
out about 8 to 10 knots of westerly breeze prior to the
start. ... |
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| Big change here from his C
Scow for Scott Tillema. Lori looks pleased with her new
crew, and ... ... |
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| ... it's mutual! ... |
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| All in all, it's a lovely
day ... ... |
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| ... for racing. Gale
Shoemaker and Francois Simon cross the photography boat on
port, while Pete Hylen (yellow) and the Minsons, Butch and Janice (blue) sail off on starboard. ... |
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| SHADES owner, Uncle Al, will get first
turn at the helm, even though crew, Marc, (with Michele Parish) is the defending champion. ... |
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| (l to r) Uncle Al with Marc, Lori with
Scott, Geoff Edwards with Ted Gadd ... |
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| (l to r) Peter Hylen with Dave Hepting,
Butch Minson with wife, Janice ... |
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| Nautical thumb twiddling
continues as the RC fine tunes a windward-leeward course
with an offset mark at the windward mark, two sausages
plus a windward leg to the finish; winds more or less out
of the west. ... |
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| Jim and Linda Heffernan
appear all set to go. ... |
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| As do Joe De Brincat and
Nick Seraphinoff. ... |
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| Mary Abel keeps the
proverbial "good lookout" while helm, Tony Krauss, ponders
the meaning of life. ... |
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| Peter Hylen and Dave
Hepting sail a well balanced ship. ... |
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| We're into the final 30
seconds, and a ... ... |
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| ... late 15° back in the
wind direction has seriously favoured the "pin" end. Butch
(blue hull) has the favoured end locked up, while Al
(right off his transom) plans to tack right on the gun in
order to take the earliest possible advantage of the
shift. ... |
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| Tack completed, Al just
squeezes across in front of several starboard tackers
including Dave Moring with Kevin Rankin in 10245, Joe and
Nick (red hull) as well as Richard and Michele (just
visible under Al's boom). ... |
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| While most of the rest of
the fleet is now stuck on starboard, Al and Marc are
pleased that they were first to respond to the shift. ... |
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| Joe (1115), Tony (4105) and
Butch (3951) tack about a minute later and set off in
pursuit of ... ... |
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... Al (3rd from left)
who is not feeling too sanguine about this turn of
events: the wind is continuing to back, and the boats
that tacked later are now on the inside of a persistent
shift to will max out at about 30° and leave Al on the
outside looking in. By the time Al wondered aloud,
"Should we bite the bullet and tack?", Marc sensibly
responded: "Nah! The shift seems to have gone as far as
it'll go, so we might as well stay out here in clear
air." Which we did, while sailing as high and fast as we
could while trying to minimize the damage. If we had
tacked across, all we could hope to do was sail into
disturbed air and water, and thus go slower! - for full view
of this pic, click here
... |
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| Note how the inside boats
here are already getting the lift sooner than those on the
outside. |