This week the wind kindly decided to swing west prior to the RC anchoring and was at a nice cooling 6 knots. A W6 course was called, with the starting area just north of Hogback and the windward mark dropped at 260° several hundred yards off Canoe Island Lodge’s moorings. 17 boats gathered around the committee boat making it our largest fleet of the year! Welcome to Bob Miller and crew – may “La Forza” be with you.
Although the line was short for the 17-boat fleet there were no real contests for the start. All boats were more than a boat-length off the line at the start, making it easy for the RC to call the all clear. A lot of tacking on the first leg split the fleet up and spread them over a very wide swath of the lake. It was great to see so many sails back lit by the sun.
Vaporize led the way around the first mark in just under 15 minutes, with Witch Way, Iko Iko, and Brad’s J/80 in company. Brad, with an hour-glassed chute, lost some distance to the closely following boats but recovered well. The fleet was packed a little tighter on this downwind run with Vaporize sailing the southern extent and Wild Thing opting for the northerly route back to the leeward mark. Wild Thing rounded third behind Vaporize and Brad’s J/80 respectively, with Witch Way, Iko Iko, Uncle Ludwig and High Jinx in tight succession. Iko Iko opted to head south right at the turn. Dave and Nelson increased their lead by staying to the north on the third leg in the surprising steady breeze, as the RC was watched a large wind hole developing south of the Canoe Islands.
As the boats rounded the third mark, the RC decided to finish them at the fourth mark, still watching the wind hole getting bigger. Spirit made up a lot of ground on the final leg, passing Witch Way but not quite enough to catch Uncle Ludwig at the finish. Windog also made up some ground, following Spirit into slightly higher wind velocity. Congratulations to Vaporize, Brad and Wild Thing crossing in sequence for line honors. Uncle Ludwig took the victory for the evening with Spirit’s second place entanglement at the finish. Well done Windog on taking third for the night on corrected time. A couple of boats decided to pull over and raft-up on the RC for a cooling swim and liquid refreshment as the rest of the fleet sailed back to their docks with the sun dropping behind the western ridge.