| Wayfarer
Midwinters Lake Eustis Sailing Club * February 2-4 , 2007 Friday: race 3.2 pics by Andy Douma |
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| Riding a nice puff and
Marc's
superb spinnaker work, SHADES
is pulling away - with a slight windward heel to neutralize the helm. ... |
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| Spinnaker problems aboard
the Chick'n are
handled relatively
calmly but are proving costly what with ... ... |
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| ... two other boats so
near.
Geoff (9483) has moved into 2nd place while Dave has taken
advantage of
this opportunity... ... |
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| ... to gybe to port and
move
into the best strategic position to the left of the other
two boats. ... |
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| Jeff Baker is moving very
well
and makes it ... ... |
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... through to leeward
of Peter
Hylen (2198) who has another problem: Gale Shoemaker
(4106) may soon
blanket him. If I were Jeff, I would be tempted to gybe
here, if I
could do so without fouling Butch. That would get me out
of the
disturbed air from the three boats astern.
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Panoramic view: Al (red
spi)
"covers" by staying between his nearest pursuers and the
next mark.
Geoff (blue and white spi) seems to have found happiness
(i.e. more
wind) over on the right and has pulled away into a clear
2nd, leaving
Dave (no spi) and Richard (yellow hull) to fight over
3rd. 2nd-place
finisher in each of the first two races, Joe De Brincat
is beginning to
recover from a sub-par first beat and is now lying 5th.
- for
full view of this pic, click here
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| Janice switches the pole
over to
complete Butch's gybe as the latter has moved past Jeff and Peter (yellow hull) and is also strategically well placed by being to their left. ... |
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| Tony Krauss, even without a
spinnaker, has moved well on this run and remains a threat
to all the
leaders except perhaps, Al. - for full view of this pic, click here ... |
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| The boats on the right side
do
seem to be getting better breeze: (l
to r) Jim Heffernan, Jeff, Peter ... |
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| (r
to l) Eddie Kraft, Greg Murphy and the sweetie ... |
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| 2nd-place Geoff and Ted
have
tacked right at the leeward mark, and Al and Marc have
tacked to
loosely cover. Theoretically, they should be to windward
and ahead for
a proper cover, and will now foot for speed to try to
reach the really
safe position. ... |
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| Ah! Geoff has tacked. How
nice
for us, since we can now tack to position ourselves
directly between
Geoff and the next mark. ... |
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Yellow vs. yellow: A
very close
race between Richard (10139) and Dave near the windward
mark. Dave has
set himself up well because, when he tacks for the mark
any second now,
he will have starboard on Richard who will also need a
port hitch
before he can round the windward mark.
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| Dave and Kevin start the
extremely short offset leg, having outduelled Richard on
this exchange. ... |
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| Starting the second run,
Richard
lies 4th but will have to contend with Joe (red hull)
whose comeback
after a poor first beat continues. Both Joe and Butch (3951) have moved past Jim Heffernan (white hull) on this beat. ... |
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| As Butch and Jim round, Joe
briefly helps Richard by not letting his main out to where
it should be. ... |
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But the reprieve is
temporary,
and now they're neck and neck. I read in a book
somewhere that, on a
run, the bottom of the spi should be perpendicular to
the water, and
Nick (red hull) has that happening in textbook fashion.
Michele's
spinnaker foot is angled in towards their bow, perhaps
because the clew
is being held lower?
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| As Geoff and Ted cruise
down the
run in a solid 2nd, Mike and Chuck have tacked for the
windward mark,
but ... ... |
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| ... will now have to watch
that
they don't foul Joe who is on starboard. ... |
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| "Phew! That was close. Any
more
of them under there???" ... |
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| While Joe and Richard duel
on
starboard, Dave (under Richard's jib) has gybed towards
the left where he will have clear air and the strategic advantage if/when he meets these two at the leeward mark. ... |
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| One of the club's many
Laser
sailors enjoys a bit of spectating in style as he watches
... ... |
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... the leaders approach
the
leeward mark: Al maintains a comfortable lead over
Geoff, who in turn,
is well clear of Jim Heffernan (2458), Richard (10139)
and Joe (1115) -
not to mention Dave Moring out of the picture to the
left - all of whom
are fighting over 3rd place. - for full view of this pic,
click here
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| No one close in front or
behind,
Scott and Lori enjoy a relaxed, yet very well
balanced-looking run. |