the 2008 Pumpkin Regatta
Fanshawe YC * London, ON * October 4-5
Race 1.05
photos by Bob Steer, Steve Currie and Paul Chesman
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As can be seen at right, the last of the sequence panels has been "removed" and the Wayfarers are now cleared to go.
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Dwight and Pat (4606) are off to a super start while Sue and Steph (4677) are tacking to ...
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... keep clear of the starboard Roger (7700).
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Reverse angle view from below the Race Hut: John de Boer (7351) arrives too soon at the pin end as there are still ....
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... a few seconds to go before the "gun".
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John (extreme right) has wisely gybed away. What looked like a viable port-tack start for Mike Codd (no sail number) has just become a 90-miles-an-hour dead end with the recent lift for starboard tack. So Mike wisely ...
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... bears away and begins his search for a gap in the starboard line. A lovely start meanwhile for Jens (7663) and ...
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... Dwight (4606) who have buried Al (3854) who in turn is about to take Len's (6732) wind. A suicide squeeze for Mike (no number)???
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While Jens is busy trying to pinch off Dwight, Al (extreme right) is beginning an attempt to foot into clear air to leeward of Jens.
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After bailing out early, John (7351) looks good on port tack but might consider tacking back to starboard
which, based on recent shifts, is in its favoured phase.
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View from the east side: While John sails off on port, Jens (2nd from r) continues to squeeze up on Dwight,
while the gap to leeward of these two shows how far Al has footed off in his search for clear air.
- click here for full-sized image
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A big clump of W's who are all killing each other's speed as the wind tends to rise over and by-pass such an obstacle.
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Mike (no number) might have been better off to bite the complete bullet and bear away behind Roger (7700) and Dave (4782).
That would have taken him out of this dead spot and into clear air with freedom to tack, etc.
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Still not much happening for these three. None of us really noticed the "1812" boat going up the east side of Fanshawe Lake. As I recall from last year, these "historical" boats have an outboard cleverly hidden away but fully functional - something Mike, Roger and Dave could use here?
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Aha! Al (3854) has footed through into clear air to leeward of Jens and can now do what he likes best ...
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... pinch!! Note how close to block to block the main is. To regain his freedom to tack here,
Al needs get Jens off his "hip". A bit of oversheeting is thus called for, since ...
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... it increases the backwind effect being felt by Jens (7663). This is in any case not too bad a time for Al to be stuck on starboard: it is the lifted tack and also, in this phase, the wind tends to funnel/increase under the Race Hut cliff towards which we are gradually headed.
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After his fine start, Dwight (4606) has been pushed onto port tack by the pinching Jens at a bad time. Remember the pictures of Rick Goldt's Laser start a couple of pages back where Rick was sailing about 60° higher on port than Dwight is now. This would be a good time for Dwight to limit his time on port tack to only the distance needed to reach clear air (unless he is pretty sure that he'll get more breeze where he is now headed).
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Demonstrating how favoured starboard tack is: Len (6732), Sue (4677) ...
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... Al and ...
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... Jens.
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Len and Sue go ...
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... head to head.
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