the 2007 Pumpkin Regatta
Fanshawe YC * Sept. 29-30
race pics: Saturday - Race 3.1
by Mary Abel, John de Boer, Sue Goldt, Steph Romaniuk & Sue Pilling
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Before Saturday's 3rd and final race. It was indeed a perfect ...
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... opportunity for our photographers to ...
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... get reflections shots.
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At first it appeared that we might once more be sent off, sort of upwind, to mark #4.
Above (l to r) Mike, Steve, Dave and John are checking out the possibilities.
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A lovely smile from Sue ...
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... and Steph
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Uncle Al takes ...
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... a little smoke break while Dave keeps a good look-out.
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Mike (r) and Kirk look cheerful.
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As do Pat and Dwight in Eclairelle, now that a small southerly breeze has arrived.
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Kim and Dave (l) are set for race 3, as are Doug and Françoise.
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A countdown has begun, one we're assured will extend to the full five minutes!
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Not straying too far from the line are (l to r) Dave, Al (red cap), Dwight, Mitchell and Harold.
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This time, we were being sent from start line A-B down to round the Pumpkin mark to port,
back up to round #4 (also to port) and return upwind - theoretically - to finish at A-B.
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Steve Carroll can afford a little frivolity in his Laser, but the ...
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... Wayfarers are into their final minute or so, as a nice puff sweeps in.   - for full-size pic, click here
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Half a minute later, the gun has just gone - and so has the puff!
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Some of us, like Jens (7663) sat and sat and sat at the port end which was now becalmed because what wind was left had backed into the east while the entire Laser countdown, and then the Y-Flyer countdown, came and went ...
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... while those who had stayed closer to the moorings side, were actually sort of moving:
(l to r) Sue, Steve, Dwight, Dave, Al    - for full-size pic, click here
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The larger picture: (first five W's from right) Steve, Sue, Mike, Doug, Jens   - for full-size pic, click here
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Another case of so near and yet so far: Al got this close to the Pumpkin mark (near where #2 usually sits, just past the moorings) with relative ease but then came to a complete stop where even Dave's hard hiking to leeward to give us some heel did not help.
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And behind us, things did not look much better:
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(W's from left to right) Jens (to leeward of a couple of Lasers), Doug, Mike, Sue, Steve, Dwight, Dave   - for full-size pic, click here
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By this time, SHADES (r) was occasionally drifting backwards! Desperate measures were called for: Al took off his shirt in order to better feel air movement on his skin. Here, our sails are set more or less for a run because we can feel air movement coming from astern. Yet still, we were not moving forward. It took us a while to finally figure it out: there was indeed a very light lower wind from astern at deck level, but further up, the wind was stronger and more or less off our bow.  Once we figured that out, I sailed by our masthead fly, and ...  
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... sheeted in to a closehauled course. At this point, we (2nd from right) began to move,
and soon sailed into a sizable knock, which then allowed us to ...
- for full-size pic, click here
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... tack for, and ...
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... lay, the mark.
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