Thanks to John Haller and the crew of woot! for a fast, tight fleet race set on an I5 course in the WNW winds. The shifts and puffs created opportunities on both the upwind and downwind legs for the 17 participating boats. The short start line was contested at both the pin and boat ends. Getting on to the north side of the course early was key with Animal, Uncle Ludwig, Crackerjack, and Brad Taylor’s J/80 mixing it up as they approached the first mark.
At the mark Crackerjack executed a quick gybe to port, getting out into the higher breeze first and gaining the lead. Vaporize was way out on the north side of the course making up time and Spirit slipped past Brad. The racing just a few hundred yards back was also very tight and a look back provided a spectacular view of tightly packed spinnakers. Although Crackerjack maintained its lead to the second windward mark, Animal executed the gybe faster than the other boats and took the lead back downwind.
As the boats rounded the final mark and headed towards the finish line Spirit and Vaporize were reeling in some precious yards setting up a very tight finish. Animal kept the lead for the overall win and their second win in a row, while Crackerjack followed across the line and watched a tight race for third. Dave was able to slip ahead of both Spirit and Uncle Ludwig for 3rd across the line. Spirit tacked away as Uncle Ludwig tightly covered but a wind shift favored Spirit on the final tack to the line. In the end Rodger took third overall by six seconds. The second grouping of boats was was a mix of J/22s, J/24s and J/80s.
See complete results on LakeGeorgeRacing.com — Brad Taylor and crew will be our Committee Boat hosts next week.