the 2009 Midwinters & U.S. Nationals
Friday on the water - 2
photos mostly by Peter Rahn, Uncle Al, Andrew Haill, Bob Williams
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Race 2 or 3, I can't tell which.    - for full-sized pic, click here
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View from the offset mark
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This could even be from ...
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... race 1!!
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Frank and Andrew won races 2 and 3.
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Near the finish of race 1???
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This too, could well be race 1 where Dave Hepting (2945) came 9th and Jim with Charley (3991) placed ...
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... 11th.
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A nicely backlit late-afternoon run - race 3???
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This, I remember!! Andrew Haill's pictures taken just after he and Frank had decisively won race 3. Jim Lingeman is on his way to a fine 5th, but from a series point of view, this was where Uncle Al and Nick (3854) made the move that won them the US Nats: Richard and ...
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... Michele (10139) had Al (3854) trapped. Half a minute earlier, Al had been faced with a choice - bear away for both Richard and Peter (not yet visible) and accept a certain 4th-place finish (since the finish line was only about 100 yards away) or tack short of the lay line underneath Richard and pray for a lift that would let us lay the line without tacking. There was ...     
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... no lift forthcoming. Here, we were too far to leeward to backwind Richard. To make things worse, we were fast nearing the zone where we would have few rights once we tacked towards Richard (as per Rule 18.3). A miracle was needed. And it appeared in the form of ...
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... Peter Rahn (286). Peter was making Richard nervous enough that he forgot all about Uncle Al and ...
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... sailed very high to pinch off Peter. Meanwhile ...
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... Al (l) was still not going to lay the mark (above) but Richard, in pinching up, had created a nice gap ...
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... between himself and the mark end of the line, a gap that Uncle Al and Nick were only too happy to try and fill. No more pics from Andrew here, but I can tell you what happened: We tacked to port at right about this moment, and almost immediately tacked right around the mark back onto starboard, all the while not interfering with Richard in any way. The signals from the RC boat went beep-beep-beep. The next morning, Dave Williams informed me that our bow had crossed the line less than a foot ahead of W10139 who in turn edged out Peter (r) by the slimmest of margins as well. Even not knowing whether we had placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th, Nick and I were pretty pleased with our neat finish-line move. When it turned out to have given us a 2nd, that was the icing on the cake. It was in fact the difference between our winning and losing the 2009 US Nationals. A 3rd or a 4th for us in that race, and Frank and Andrew would now be US champs. Lucky us, unlucky them!!! Still, this is the excitement that makes racing so much fun!!
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Here, Jim Lingeman (r) has taken 5th ahead of Butch Minson (l), and now it'll be John and Dolores (7351) ...
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... just edging out Jim and Linda (2458) for 7th place.
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Richard and Mark roll into 10th place
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Smiling, Ted and Mary cross in 3th place. It has turned into a lovely sailing day!!
After three Friday races, things are crowded at the top of the US Nationals board: Frank and Andrew (4-1-1) are tied at 6 points with Al and Nick (2-2-2). Three points back in 3rd overall are Richard Johnson and Michele (1-5-3) while defending champions, Peter and Alex Rhan (3-4-4) are a couple of points further back.
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