| the 2018 Midwinters/US Nationals Lake Eustis SC * February 2-4 a work in progress - updated: 6 March 2018 at 1011 hrs.. |
| Our Fabulous Four-Race
Saturday (continued) (180306) Saturday's second race (race 5 overall)
is the last for which we have extensive
photographic coverage as duty called away John
Cole, our resident pro, to the other race course
and its 40+ MC Scows. After that, the pixels were
left in the hands of Anne Pugh and her broken arm
on the RC boat.
 Tony Krauss and Marc Losh kill time before race 5. Fifth race
notes from W3854:
Relatively steady winds and another perfect opportunity to test boat speed.  the race 5 start - larger image here
 According to our pre-start
checks, the line was pretty much square to the
wind, but as can be seen above, boats at the
boat end wound up with a nice lift which
permitted Doug and Andrew (11137) to move into
a nice little lead when what we thought would
be an oscillation, never did come back to let
the boats who had started nearer the pin end,
tack across in a knock. larger
image here
 As we began the first run after
a nice test of our hiking muscles up a fairly
shiftless (so to speak) beat, a couple of
healthy gusts spiced things up. Doug (blue/white
spi) and Dave (yellow spi) rounded 1-2 while Al
(red spi, extreme right above) recovered nicely
from a "safe" start about 1/3 up from the pin
end to round in or near 3rd. larger
image here
 Tony and Marc hoist their chute after safely passing and checking on the welfare of the first race 5 casualties, Sue and Steph.  Close call for Frank and Al who sailed too high while Dave and Arial (yellow) did things perfectly.  (l to r) Doug, Dave and Al make fine use of a great gust.  Nearer the bottom mark, Doug makes the decisive move of the race as he takes Dave's wind and the lead - which he will hold to the finish.  (l to r) Ian and Jake, Richard Johnson and Michele, Tony and Marc, Uwe Heine and Nancy All have wisely doused spinnakers in plenty of time for their rounding onto beat #2 in pursuit of ...  ... 4th-place Marc Bennett and Julie (11221). larger image here  The second run: Doug and Dave (yellow spi) continue their close battle.  It's still anybody's race as the leaders round onto their final beat of race 5. larger image here  Not much has changed from the start of the previous beat.  Dave McCreedy and Dave Wilpula needed assistance to extract their mast tip from the lake bottom and the safety boat was happy to oblige.  Dave Wilpula finds a fine leaning post while awaiting further developments. more here  Doug and Andrew now have a nice lead over ...   ... Dave and Arial who in turn are safely ahead of ...  Al and Frank (3rd), Marc and Julie (4th) and the rest of the fleet. larger image here  A stiff gust keeps crew-less
Phil Leonard on his toes.
 Ian Pouliot and Jake Wolny. Life is more relaxing once you are up and out of death-roll country. The finer points of the "scoop"  The "scoop" method of
self-rescue consists of having the sailor on the
centreboard scooping the other crew member up
into the boat as it comes upright. What the
"scoopee" needs to do is to
1. grip the thwart where it meets the CB box, and 2. make sure that (s)he ends up inside the hull preferably on the thwart where it meets the box  At
this point, the scoopee wants to make sure (s)he
ends up inside the boat as
the mast comes to vertical. I have yet to find a
graceful way to do this. As I recall, I grabbed
the thwart where it meets the box and made sure
at least one of my feet was under the side deck
aft of the thwart.
Above, the crew in the water might do well to put a foot on the inside of the hull aft of the thwart and then quickly straighten up along the thwart. From this position, he can move weight to windward to help the board man fight against the effects of the windblown spinnaker they are dealing with here. Better yet, the inside guy can uncleat the spi and remove it as an obstacle to successful righting.  The
nastier the conditions, the more valuable saved
seconds become. If the crew ends up inside the
boat on the thwart, he is in perfect position to
do "jobs one": get the dangerous spi down and
completely raise the board as soon as the boat
is more or less upright, after making sure that
the main and jib sheets are
free to run out so that neither sail can fill.
Once the boat is stabilized in the R&R
position: dead in the water and sideways to the
wind with no steering needed, Mr. Inboard can
safely move to windward until Mr. Outboard can
easily slide back aboard over a side deck that
is partially submerged.
 Life goes on.  At the finish, it was Doug and Andrew comfortably winning ahead of Dave and Arial while Al and Frank took 3rd, yet again one back of the Yellow Marvels from LESC.  A private amusing moment with Scott Bogue and his crew aboard Scott's contribution to our Midwinters' safety boat flotilla. part 2b of Al's report |