the Wayfarer Ontarios
Lac Deschênes Sailing Club
* July 28-29, 2007
Saturday race 1.3
pics
(mostly) by Doug Netherton
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At the gybe mark: Al has moved past Frank (648) who was still sailing white sail, Kim not wishing to use races as spi practice. Both Lori (3140) and Sue (4677) have sailed a fine first reach to stay within striking distance. Notice how, even before his gybe, Al has whipped the spinnaker around to its new leeward side, what with another reach coming up.
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It's a nice, tight race among the top four.
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An uncharacteristically slow spi set for Marc (3854) but not much will be lost since Al has trimmed both jib and main instead of wasting his time urging Marc on to greater efficiency.  Lori has wisely opted to try to pass Frank to leeward, always a wise option for a spi boat trying to pass a white-sail one. If the reach is not too close, this is a good time to drop down three to four boatlengths to leeward of the boat you are trying to pass, in order to stay out of the worst of windward's disturbed air.
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Sue and Steph have done a super gybe and are now threatening to pass ...
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... Lori and Jason.
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With pick-up crew, Colleen Bigelow, aboard Njord, Andrew has ruled out spinnaker action, but has lost only about four boatlengths to John and Dolores down this reach - no mean feat, considering the de Boers' reputation for spinnaker speed!
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In their CL, Frumious Bandersnatch, Colin and Heather have held off Andrew and Steve, but a lot will depend on this gybe.
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From this angle, it looks like Frank is about to move back into first place after he and Sue (4677) were the first to get a puff coming down the Ottawa River, something Al should have guarded against by sailing high. In point of fact ...
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... the wind finally reached SHADES (red spi) just in time to save Al's day - for the time being!!
(l to r) Al, Frank, Sue, Lori, Andrew?
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Tony and Mary in action at the gybe mark - it was a fairly short reach and Tony ...
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... looks like he still recalls the windward mark!!
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It's a very close spi reach, being very nicely managed by the Hansmans and the ...
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... Abbotts.
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Perfect division of labour: the crew (Ben) takes care of the spinnaker while the helm (Jamie) leaves him to it without extraneous commentary, and concentrates on steering the boat.
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The dilemma: On a close spi reach like this, Frank (648) can easily defend his wind, being able to point up at will, so that Sue is stuck with trying to pass to leeward. If they're still a fair distance from the leeward mark, Sue could - the next time her spi fills - dive down a few lengths to leeward and see if she can get through further removed from the source of Frank's wind shadow.
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Marc and Al have established a bit of a lead. They have - as always - discussed second-beat strategy during the latter part of the second reach. In a close race like this one, a pre-determined plan that is clear to both helm and crew, is a big plus. Frank having done so well banging the left side last time, and conditions being unchanged (as far as we could tell!), our plan was to try to stay between Frank and the next mark, which, if Frank banged the corner again, would keep us with him. We had agreed to tack as soon as Marc was ready after stowing the spi, and we ...
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... did so ...
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... in pretty fine style. We then tacked back to port as Frank was about to round.
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The latter also tacked to starboard pretty well right at the mark,
so we held port a few more seconds than Frank did, and then tacked back to ...
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... starboard, when we were more or less directly between Frank and the next mark.
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Reverse angle view: Even sailing white sail, Bill Fyfe and Deirdre Bowers
have gained nicely on Lori and Jason despite the latter's fine spinnaker efforts.
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And the reach was close enough that Andrew, without his spinnaker, was able to stay right with John (7351).
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Colin (929) starts beat #2 just ahead of Dave who is in turn, closely pursued by a ...
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... very determined ...
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... Tony Krauss.
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