The First Saturday

  The first Keuka MC races took place on Saturday morning.  I arrived at the club later than I wanted. (Note to self: leave Elmira at 6:45, not 7:05) Only to find no wind on the water.  There was much speculation if we should even go out. We did, but it was all low side sailing. The wind was around 3kn, which really is the bare minimum to sail just about any boat. Since there were only 6 of us out, there was enough wind to sail a race. 

  While waiting for the wind to fill in on the whole lake, we did a practice race of one windward leeward, with the start-finish line between the No Wake buoy and the hoist dock. The windward mark was a float platform two hundred yards south of the club. I tried to hug the shoreline, but this meant more tacks then everyone else. Both Chris Hawk and William Hudson were in the lead.  William hit the float while rounding all on his own volition. It was pretty comical. I stayed in third.  It was a nice way to start the season in such light air.

  The wind did finally fill in from the south and built as the morning went on.  The RC went out and set a starting line and a windward mark.  We used the pin as the leeward mark.  We did a twice around with a downwind finish.  The first race was all low side sailing, about 5-6 knots. I hit the starting line on starboard with speed and tacked to port to head to the shore as soon as I could.  Chris and I were close with Chris slightly ahead. When we both tacked when we got to the shore; I ate his bad wind. I tacked to clear and went to the shore again. Chris was gone as I no longer had the speed.   I was on the layline when William came in on port.  He tacked just a head and below me and now gave me his bad wind. Slower I went. The race held that way for the next two legs.  On the last windward rounding I extended on starboard for a tiny bit before gybing. William went passed the starboard layline to the committee boat and then gybed. This allowed me to pass him to finish second. Brent came on strong at the end to push William, but still he ended fourth.

  The second race started with a little more wind, it was just barely high side sailing, around 8 knots.  I had another full speed at the committee start. Chris was east of me and I was slightly ahead.  Once he was on port and going to pass behind me I tried to tack on him.  It was an unsuccessful tack.  It turns out my traveler was down some on the port tack and I could not hold my speed on him.  It was Chris battling William for 1^st around the windward mark. I was firmly in third.  On the last downwind I went further west than Chris and William.  I forgot that it was the finish and headed for the mark when I gybed.  I am not sure what happened between Chris and William, but I heard some yelling and I saw William crossing behind Chris and all heeled up and ready to capsize on Chris.  If I had headed for the Committee boat instead of the pin, I may have been able to beat Chris. As it was, he got me by a boat length. William recovered to finish third.

  The third race started with me a little behind Chris at the boat and William in front of Chris. I wanted to tack right away but I allowed Brent in between me and the RC boat. I tacked once Brent also tacked tp  head to the shore. Both Chris and I went more toward the shore than William.  At the mark all three of us were close, I was inside Chris and William came in on port and tacked.  I had to head up to avoid hitting him while coming from clear astern.  If we were within the zone, than that was a foul on William’s part, if we were outside the zone, then no foul. It was close, more than likely it really was a foul, but I never protested. No paint was traded, which was good. I went further east allowing both to get an inside overlap on me.  Going back upwind, William sailed fast to stay in first, Chris went out into the lake more.  I rounded more than 5 boat lengths behind William  I went further to shore than William for seperation, but was unable to catch him and finished second again.  William sailed well all day with a 3,3,1; Chris had a 1,1,3; and I had a 2,2,2. I believe Brent finished 4^th in all races, Spence was 5^th in all races and Steve Mixon was 6^th in all races.  Steve did a good job for his first MC races ever. He was never too far behind us, which is good for a first timer.

  I never made it to the club on Sunday, deciding to do home type things and buy some hardware and sealant getting ready to finish the work on the Lightning this week.