Thanks to Brad Taylor and  his crew for giving us an interesting W4 race around the Canoe Islands in the 4- to 7-knot winds from the south. The line was square but short which made it very interesting and forced Spirit over early. Spirit quickly restarted and the line was cleared within seconds.

The fleet pretty much split with only a few boats working up the center. As Vaporize  and woot! led the fleet around the Canoe Islands, Animal, Uncle Ludwig and Crackerjack changed position multiple times with lots of close tacking. Crackerjack took a slightly wider path around the island and rounded South Canoe Buoy third  with Uncle Ludwig in close company. Animal and Spirit stayed to the east longer but the winds had started to diminish across the course. Uncle Ludwig caught a slight puff and nudged ahead of Crackerjack as the fleet closed on the first leeward mark.

Reading the wind velocity decrease well, Brad changed the course with the new windward mark as North Canoe, keeping a W4. As the fleet worked back upwind towards North Canoe, both Spirit and Animal banged out the west side and caught a nice lift thereby mixing up the lead J/24s yet again. After rounding, Crackerjack and Animal went back to the west, Uncle Ludwig went down the center, and Spirit headed to the east side of the course. Spirit caught better velocity on the east side while Animal almost went too far to the west, allowing Judy to close within seconds by working up the center.

Congratulations to Vaporize and woot! leading the boats across the line; Spirit captured the overall win, withVaporize taking second and Uncle Ludwig third. Next week the crew of Charjer will be our committee boat hosts.

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.

Results have been posted to http://www.lakegeorgeracing.com/

For the second week in a row the participants were treated to awesome wind and waves coming straight down the lake from Dome Island. In fact, the wind was heavier and the waves bigger than last week and afforded a fantastic heavy air sailing adventure! Thanks to Rob Fraser and crew for acting as committee boat last evening and set-up up a long  I-5 course with the weather mark well to the north of the square line. The North Canoe government mark served as the leeward mark. Thank you Rob and crew for a long course!

Ten boats came out to challenge each other and nature with one DNS and another DNF. The 8 finishing boats completed the course within 11 minutes of the first finishing boats in the challenging conditions. At the start, the fleet was generally scattered down the line. Spirit and Crackerjack started at the boat end with Animal, Vaporize and Cut Loose opting for an early tack to the east also starting at the boat end but slightly later. Crackerjack, following a very fast and flatter Spirit up the middle sailed the long leg first. Uncle Ludwig led the west side boats. Eventually, Crackerjack tacked towards the approaching east-side boats where Animal passed in front with Vaporize and Cut Loose close behind. Spirit led the way around the first mark by 5 boat lengths with Animal, Crackerjack and Uncle Ludwig in hot pursuit of each other and separated by only a few boat lengths to each other. However, Animal set their chute perfectly, while Spirit had a disheartening wrap around the forestay and eventually had to strike it and sail downwind on jib alone.

Meanwhile, one Crackerjack’s crew (to remain nameless in this account) decided that the water looked very inviting and decided to take a quick bath! Fortunately the crew did not let go of the boat and was back on board within seconds to finally get their cute up and drawing. Half the fleet opted for spinnakers and had a very fast run with surfing conditions down to North Canoe. Meanwhile, the Viper 640 was planing without a chute down the east side of the course. Most of the boats needed only one gybe to the leeward mark but waited for the lower winds and flatter water in which to execute it in.  During the run Crackerjack was able to reel in Animal while Uncle Ludwig and Cut Loose also carrying their chutes passed Spirit. At the rounding, the order was tight and Rob signaled for a shortened course by radio and flag. Crackerjack had to tack out from the bad air off Animal’s sails after rounding within inches of the lead boat. Demonstrating some great upwind sailing, Animal pulled out a substantial lead toward the finishing line and the order around the leeward mark was the finishing order as recorded by the committee boat.

Congratulations to Animal starting the second half of the season as they did the first half! Rob was very humble after the race acknowledging that Committee Boat Duty requires lots of knowledge and teamwork and a bigger anchor! Next week our committee boat host will be the crew of woot!

This Saturday, July 18, the Lake George Club is opening up its start line to all boats on the lake for the afternoon races. Race area is generally the same as Wed nights, and the afternoon races typically start around 1-1:30pm. Hail PRO Dave Dougall on channel 72 for details or check in at the committee boat.

A second open line date is planned for Aug 15.

The last race of the first half of the 2015 series treated the competitors to a wind blowing much harder than any weather forecast or web link showed. Blowing straight down the lake from Dome Island (NE), wind speeds were a steady 15 with higher gusts. The waves added to the mix which had been much higher during the day. Welcome Ken and the crew of Molasses and Ben McAndrew and crew in Jaded on their first night out for the year!

Thanks to the crew of Animal for acting as Committee Boat on a great sailing night and setting an I-5 course.  The start line was skewed to favor the pin end yet Crackerjack followed by Stinger and Vaporize opted for the less contested boat end of the line. Most boats could not see the mark in the waves and were expecting a much longer first leg which led them to over-stand the first  mark. Having sighted the mark prior to the start, Crackerjack covered Uncle Ludwig’s port tack on the lay line. Those two boats went around the course in sequence from then on.

At the first set, a rigging issue on Crackerjack allowed Uncle Ludwig to sail a much deeper course gaining back some valuable distance and slightly separating from the next set of boats. In a brave attempt for more power Cut Loose was sporting its genoa on the upwind legs. It was great sailing downwind where boats could be induced to plane on the waves. Some boats opted not to fly their spinnakers, Wild Thing among them, while Vaporize was knocking down 13+ knots on the downwind legs.

A lot of crews opted for the conservative approach at the leeward marks striking spinnakers early and holding on to port tack after the rounding even if they had bad air from boats ahead. Given the short legs, all but one boat completed the course in less than one hour but most crews would have preferred to stay out in the awesome sailing weather.

At the finish line, Crackerjack sailing wire to wire took the win with Uncle Ludwig  second and Wild Thing crossing third just seconds behind. Due to handicap, Wild Thing’s time margin was not enough to stop the J/24s from taking 1 – 6 for the night. Spirit took third overall. Stinger also had a great night pulling in a fourth!

 

The 1^st half series  totals are below. Congratulations to Crackerjack taking five  1^st place finishes during the 1^st half , with Spirit taking 2^nd  , and Witch Way and 3^rd.  Next week starts our 2^nd half series with the crew of Stinger acting as host on Committee Boat.

11 boats showed up in the moderate SW winds where the crew of High Jinx set a windward-leeward 5 leg course from the start line to North Canoe to a pin set to the NE of the Committee boat. Welcome to Moonlighting for their first race of the series!

As it turned out the shifting winds created huge holes forcing the committee boat to shorten course to a 4 leg race. At the start the SW winds suddenly increased and then shifted to the West favoring the boat end of the line where Cut Loose won the start with Crackerjack right behind. Animal followed and quickly tacked which allowed Crackerjack to follow suit and clear their air. Heading into the west wind early may have been the deciding factor as the wind started to oscillate with big puffs from the west. Those boats that held on to the East side of the course soon found themselves battling into the west wind.

At the first mark Crackerjack led the way with Spirit and Vaporize in close pursuit. The tight spinnaker reach down the next leg saw Dave hitting over 10 knots but was unable to catch Crackerjack. Spirit gybed earlier than Vaporize and rounded the second mark inside of Vaporize. Looking back upwind the lead boats saw what a crazy wind pattern had created. A few boats had yet to make it round the first mark! The ensuing wind shifts from West to South to East drove crews crazy as they tried to keep momentum towards the next mark. Spirit and Vaporize switched positions and closed in on Crackerjack several times during leg 3. As the lead boats slipped down the last leg to the finish the wind steadied. Crackerjack took lines honors with Dave seconds ahead of Spirit across the finish line to take a third for the evening.

Next week marks the last race of the first half with the crew of Animal hosting us as Committee Boat. 17 boats have participated in the series thus far with promises from several more J/22s to be out on the course for the second half.