The lake breeze settled in (S, 8-15 knots) for this one, a windward-leeward course to finish our Saturday racing. Between races, Frank and Al had bypassed the adjustable bridle with a makeshift unadjustable but more reliable one! After both series leaders had less than ideal starts, Al covered Heider off toward the right side of the first beat. However, it soon became evident that John Cawthorne, Hans Gottschling, John Goldi, Peter Ayres et al had gained big time by going left, so Al bailed out towards the left only to discover that a late veer had propelled the right-side boats (including Heider!!) back into contention.
At the mark most of the fleet was fairly bunched, and it was John Cawthorne, Hans Gottschling and Heider Funk who rounded 1-2-3, I believe, with Al rounding in mid-fleet just behind the the Taylor brothers. But luck was still with SHADES as the other boats all chose to stay on starboard and fight each other ever higher of the leeward mark while Al was left alone to gybe to the port tack which was now favoured with a better wind angle towards the leeward mark.

By the time the leaders gybed to port (see photo above), Al had ridden some nice waves and Frank usual flawless spi work into a fight over 3rd place as we passed the start-finish line. With the other leaders committed to leaving that no-go area to port, Al (far right) was left alone to romp down the other side of the course.

About 200 m. from the leeward mark, SHADES (3854) was starting to look like she might have a shot at making life difficult for 2nd-place Heider (6) while John Cawthorne (almost blocked from view by 7700, Roger Shepherd) continued to lead. In the photo above, Al had just decided that the time had come to "visit" Heider who, as you can see, is on port tack. As Al headed up to a convergence course with Heider, his speed increased enough to make Heider justifiably nervous about a successful crossing, especially when, about 30 m. from the mark, Al settled in about one boatlength off Heider's transom. It was a tough decision for Heider who could round without gybing twice more by holding his course. In the end, Heider waited a second too long after his sails collapsed and had to violently luff up to stay out of starboard Al's way. In doing so, he briefly lost control and ended up going past the wrong side of the mark.

While Heider and Tom (6) were left to sort out a terrible mess - spi sheets under the boat, etc. - until well into the beat, Al (far left) was off to try to eat into John Cawthorne's 200-metre lead. With SHADES settling into a nice routine of footing for speed and then pinching for a bit in the increasing wave action, Al and Frank were able to close the gap on John and David who had broken their hiking straps. Heider and Tom meanwhile, had to fight tooth and nail to hold off Roger Shepherd (7700) and Hans Gottschling (938). 

At the windward mark, it was John still in first but only a couple of lengths up on Al while Heider and Roger were about 200 m. back in 3-4. An early and well executed gybe to port again paid off for Al. By the time John gybed over, Al was past and pulling away in a nice puff. In the photo above, Frank and Al have gybed back to starboard and are carrying a nice puff past the RC boat on their way to the leeward mark...

First to the finish was Uncle Al, with John Cawthorne getting a fine 2nd and Heider getting the nod over Roger for 3rd. In a battle of red boats, Hans Gottschling took 5th over John Goldi while Kit Wallace and Jean Holden continued their day of improving finishes with a 7th.