By the time we reached the end of our short initial beat, the wind had piped up considerably (above). Making sure they did not let Canadian champions, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk get too far away unattended, Al and Roger used their weight advantage to grind down the rest of the teams and ultimately pulled away to a handy win. Most of the others were more closely bunched - l to r above: Dave Richardson, Sue, John, Dave Hansman, Ross. In the end, Sue recovered to grab 2nd place ahead of Dave Richardson who in turn knocked off the other Dave, Mr. Hansman who reveals in the email below why they did not fly the chute in race 1 and eventually dropped out of the series part-way through race 2:


Also of note from race 1 is the fact that Andy and Robin began their race reefed, got axed boat-speed-wise, shook out their reef and then coped much better.

The start of our third race after a short on-the-water lunch break saw our fleet dwindle to five active participants as Dave H. and Andy had dropped out: l to r above: Ross, John, Dave R, Al, Sue. In the second heat, Al, Sue and Dave R had again placed 1-2-3. During the break the wind gusts became longer and stronger to the extent that the windward mark was slowly but surely being dragged to leeward and towards the left side of our beat. The RC was having to make do with minimal support and decided the course was still doable. By the time we started what turned out to be the final race, we could nearly lay the windward mark on starboard tack from the start line, so the key was to get off the line with clear air. As can be seen above, Al and Roger (3854) were perfectly placed to pinch off Sue and Steph (397), and they did so before rounding onto the first reach with a nice little lead. That reach had now become quite close, what with the drifting mark, but after the gybe ...

... we were treated to a nice, broad spinnaker reach with some pretty hairy gusts prompting Al (above) to sit well aft and keep the bow up, just to be on the safe side. As we sailed the long beat and ensuing run, I thought how fortunate I was to have such a capable, unflappable crew as Roger.

By the time we were on the final short beat to the finish, the winds were regularly over 20 knots, and we were quite happy to have a little rest after crossing the line with our third straight win. Treating the spectators to a fine duel over second place were John and Dolores (7351) who edged out Dave and Kim (above).

We later discovered that Sue and Steph had capsized in one of the wilder gusts and had dropped out. Above, you can see the shipwrecked mariners heading for Callander's town beach - a lee shore but fortunately it was not rocky and the Callander Bay waves are never very big.

Meanwhile, Ross and Lori had also capsized - near the leeward mark. As we finish, Roger and I were asked by the RC to perform rescue boat duties in SHADES. Unfortunately, the official, inexperienced rescue people had chosen this time to go have lunch. So we planed on over, and stood by, telling them that Roger (no heart condition!) would be willing to get into the water to help out if necessary while Al offered to pick up anyone who was feeling too exhausted? Unfortunately, the luffing sails were too loud for my advice to be heard after the Jamiesons righted MYSTiC and tried to gently sail her the quarter mile or so to the beach before bailing most of the water out. What works in this situation is to sit with board full up and the sails luffing while one or both bail. No rush - the boat will be quite stable without forward momentum. Trying to sail, no matter how gently, almost invariably leads to another capsize I have found. And it did here - a beautiful death roll - and this time the aft tank had begun to fill up and even with Roger's help, W4577 could not be re-righted a second time until the rescue boat finally arrived to help (above). I believe this was a case of let well enough alone, i.e. once re-righted, you should take the safe approach and bail before you sail!!

Many thanks as always to our RC, Fred and Anne McNutt (above) who were now going to have to prepare their Trout Lake cottage for the next day's onslaught of Wayfarers who would complete their Trout Lake Poker Race with a lovely picnic at the McNutts' once more.

Lesser preparations for us sailors who were getting set to trail the boats the short distance to the launch ramp at the west end of Trout Lake for the next day's Poker Race. Above you can see the bonus of having a support team: Uncle Al admires Julia's thoroughness as she hoses and scrubs off any plant and animal life that may be hoping to infest Trout Lake. And, in what has become a marvellous Saturday night tradition, Lynn, our lovely chef from The McCoys once more fed us in fantastic style.

After which we had thank you awards for various volunteers - none more appreciated than Linda O'Shea who was presented by Dave and Carol Hansman with what was either the world's largest bailing bucket (above) or a deluxe mixing bowl for Dark and Stormies!!!

Once more, the Bruise Sisters were front and centre to dance for us with guest "sister", Dave Richardson (above), after which our MC, Dave Hansman (l) had the lovelies line up (below) with the Gold, Silver and Bronze "medals" cushioned in a lovely manner for the lucky winners, all highlighted by own very own flower girl, Sue (r).