14 boats came out on a beautiful warm evening, with enough wind to send them to the Diamond Island mark W on a simple W2 course. It’s been a while since the wind has been favorable for this classic course, and a lot of boat crews expressed their appreciation.
Animal, hunting the pin end, ran out of line and had to gybe and duck through the fleet at the start. Many boats tacked off to port to clear air at the start but by the time the fleet approached the slot between Speaker Heck and Canoe islands, most boats had completed a half-dozen tacks.
High Jinx was seen crossing lots of bows on starboard tack in the Speaker Heck slot. The typical Dunham’s Bay lift never materialized, but the veterans of this course were hedging their bets and staying to the east. woot! was out on the west side of the course without losing ground. Vaporize headed into the Diamond Island mark and threw in a couple of big scallops, rounded first and set their chute quickly, a couple of minutes ahead of Witch Way and woot! and Spirit.
The downwind run saw Vaporize increase its time differential on Witch Way back through the slot. As the wind started to fade and switch to the west, the leading boats dropped their spinnakers for a close reach to the finish line. Vaporize held on the their chute and then at the last minute dropped it and came up smartly to finish, leading the fleet wire to wire. Witch Way crossed the line next and took the victory for the night, with Spirit and Wild Thing in close company. The first four boats to finish stayed ahead of the wind fade. Vaporize took the bronze position on corrected time.
Race 13 gives us our first throw-out for the second half, with the top boats in a tight point race. Witch Way has a commanding nine-point lead overall.