(W's from l to r) Steve, Mike just to leeward of Dave, John de Boer, Sue Pilling, Jens Biskaborn, Doug Netherton.     No sign of Uncle Al as yet. He and Dave Hansman have been busy at the dock, chatting with a couple that just bought a Wayfarer, certain that there will be a further postponement. And it wasn't until the first beep echoed across the water that we began to realize that we were in a large amount of time trouble. In the end, we were perhaps two minutes late for the start.

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An impressive early lead for the Graffs (l). Others from left to right: Mike, Sue to leeward of Jens, Dave and John. The latter might be well advised to briefly get off the very favoured port tack here, because there is a lovely wind streak just to windward of him that he and Tony are not getting.   - for full-size pic, click here

Fighting it out for 3rd place behind Steve and Mike are (l to r) Jens, Sue, Dave, John and Len, while at the far right, Dwight Aplevich and Uncle Al (far right) have at last crossed the start line. Note that Al is taking the unfavoured starboard tack here, because he hopes to sail into better wind pressure, not to mention clear air. - for full-size pic, click here

Steve (l) has, as can be seen from his wake, just put in a very short hitch on port just as a shift came in that would let him lay #4 on starboard. This shift is not good news for Mike (CAN90), Dave (4782) and John (7351) since Sue and Jens have been lifted inside them and will now - for the moment, at least - have a far more direct (shorter!!) path to the windward mark.
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These three have gone far to the left side and need to pray that they either get a lot more wind or a huge knock if they're to catch the guys that stayed nearer the middle. John (7351) has everything strapped in awfully far for this wind strength, especially when all he's doing by pinching is sailing deeper into Dave's wind shadow!

These wind conditions would prove to be the order of the day: intermittent gust cells coming down to length of the lake. Above, you can see that this shift has left the guys nearer the rhumb line to #4 (just to the left of leader, Steve) in far better position than the left-side boats.   - for full-size pic, click here

Under the cliff, Dave (4782), John (7351) and Dwight (4606) still have breeze, as does Mike who has a huge port lift that is, alas, useless since he is now sailing a circle around the windward mark (just off to the right of this picture's scope). Steve, meanwhile, will now be the first to reach the next calm - to windward of Mike.