July 4th Weekend

  Thursday was the celebration of 237 years of the USA declaring Independence from England. It turned out to be a beautiful weekday to be on the lake. The motor boat traffic was heavy but not awful thanks to nice winds keeping many off the water.

  I had my semi-regular crew of Mike and Tab on the Lightning. Unfortunately, the only competition we had was Leon, so the races were unofficial. The RC gave us the same course as the E-Scows, which takes 10+ minutes more for us to complete than the E-Scows while also starting 5 minutes later. It is very silly. They should either give us a shorter course with a different windward or leeward mark or start us before them. What ends of happening is either they are waiting a long time for us to finish so they can start their second race or we are sharing a leg with them at some point during the second race. Plus we end up only getting a two lap and then a one lap so we are finished at a reasonable time for lunch. If we start before them, then we will share the first leg with them and we might have some windward roundings crunch the first time, but they are so much faster than us that they will be ahead of us before the leeward mark. We ended up with two good races. I won race 1 and Leon won race 2. As a team we are getting good teamwork together. The gybes are still a work in progress but the sets are usually pretty good. Tab now knows her job well on the sets. Leeward take downs seem to go ok, but the windwards ones still need practice. I also need to work on my timing for jib up and spinnaker take down. I seem to either call for both either too early or too late.

  The MCs started late with only three boats making it to the first race. That was too bad as it was the best of the two that we had with good wind through most of it. Steve Bender got by me at the windward mark, but I passed him downwind. At one point I thought he might have sailed into a super lift and been able to pass me going back upwind, but then it turned into a hole for him, right when we both got hit by motor boat waves. I was able to keep better speed and easily finish in front while he went and made a tactical error waiting too long to tack for the pin and Spencer ended up catching up to him. It was so close at the line that we have awarded a tie, but I think Steve got him by an arm length. The second race had six boats on the line. We had a terrible wind shift to the west with 30 seconds to go that ended up staying for the whole race. The race became a reach for all 5 legs with some small shifts to more south or more north. I ended up with the best start and led for the first 2.5 legs. Spencer was able to get by me on a nice puff. He stayed comfortably in front while I maintained second. I felt like I struggled to stay moving during the reaches, but it looked to me like we all did as the whole fleet got strung out during the legs.  We decided to call it a day believing it would take too long to reset the course as it was close to 4pm. Chris Hawk had decided not to sail so I immediately had a jump on the season standings on him.

  

  Fast forward to Sunday. Another beautiful day on the lake with good sustained winds throughout. Tab was off helping run music camp, so I had a friend of hers who used to sail E-Scows in the 60s come up and run the spinnaker. Mary Jane had never run the spinnaker before, but she still sailed often enough to have an idea of what to do. John Brown was out with us so we had three. Unfortunately he sailed off to kingdom come and missed the first start. We got off the line fast in the first race and had a large lead on Leon. I made a bad mistake and did not gybe a second time and ended up taking the spinnaker down and reaching into the mark. This let Leon catch up and pass us. We also had a bad take down and had the spin sheet run underneath the boat. We had to untie and throw it back around the forestay and then retie it. Because of this I was a bit distracted and we lost lots of ground. Fortunately we stayed in more wind and caught up to Leon. He still ended up beating us, but it was a fun race nonetheless. The second race was a quick one lap around. Leon had a much better start and was gone. John did start this race, but was a non-factor. Leon won the 4th of July series on the one official race.

  The MCs had seven boats on the line, our largest so far, for three good races in 8-12 south winds. For the first time in recent memory I beat Chris Hawk on the day. He is super fast upwind, but I am slightly faster downwind. Chris port tacked the fleet, but had to start going behind me, William, and Spencer. Chris lead race 1 until the last leeward mark when I was able to get the inside edge of the rounding. I then covered him the rest of the way. It was still close, but I was able to get to the line first. The second race was a battle of me, Chris and William. William and Chris were first around and I was fourth. I went too far west downwind and lost a boat. Because of that I decided to stay east the second time up. All three of the boats between me and William went too far west on that leg and the east was favored so I was able to round behind William. William had a good lead. Chris charged hard downwind, but I was able to hold him off for second. The third race was a battle between William and Chris. I was close but unable to challenge either one and ended up third. A 1, 2, 3 for the day was good to maintain my lead in the standings after 5 races. William was blazing fast in the last two races posting a 5, 1, 1 and Chris was consistent with a 2,3,2. Steve Bender had a solid day with a 4, 4, 4. That leaves me in first with a 6 point cushion after a five races and one drop race. William and Chris are tied at 12 with William having the tie breaker. Spence and Steve are right behind on 12.5 and 13.5 respectively. My lead will evaporate this weekend if there is wind since I won’ be there.

  Next up is a weekend off for me so I can attend a friend’s wedding in Virginia Beach. Next fleet races are July 20 & 21.