What a night with the wind blowing like crazy, and the sailors moving like crazy to match!  Steady winds in excess of 15 knots and gusts to the upper-20s were the order of the night, and some sailors elected to stay ashore rather than fight the wind and waves.  Mario found an RC volunteer (many thanks, Norm) to run the race, which allowed Heidi and Emily to take the second boat out as a rescue boat.  Turned out to be a good call, as a catamaran capsize and tow in was needed before the first prep signal went up!

In an effort to make these posts shorter, I’ll try to limit myself to one or two paragraphs per race…  First race saw a boat-end favoured line, and a good clean start.  Steve/Carla (Tasar) pulled away from Dominic/Monica (Albacore), Luc (Laser) and Jason (Laser) early on.  Slightly late starts by Frank/Jean (Albacore) and Mike R (Byte) followed.  A sloppy tack to port by Jason meant that Dominic/Monica could tack and get above him.  Luc elected to stay on starboard, however the wind slightly calmed on the that side of the course, meaning he lost boat speed.  Not much change is position from there (great defending by Dominic/Monica to fend off Jason on the reaching legs).  Final results were Steve/Carla (Tasar, 1st, by a mile), Dominic/Monica (Albacore, 2nd), Jason (Laser, 3rd), Luc (Laser, 4th), Frank/Jean (Albacore 5th), Mike R (Byte, 6th) with an OCF 7th for Mike T/Jasper (29er).

The 2nd race saw Jennie/Andrew (Andrew’s 1st time sailing!) join the fleet in an Albacore, and the 29er was in the thick of it from the beginning.  A slightly favoured pin end of the line led to congestion on the start.  Steve/Carla, Dominic/Monica, Mike R , Luc and Jennie/Andrew all had good starts.  Frank/Jean came up from behind with the 29er bearing on.  Jason messed up the start (got tangled in the mainsheet) and was forced into a poor port tack start behind most of the others.  He was able to find a hole in front of Frank/Jean and the 29er to sneak through, but was well behind the rest of the fleet.  But surprise!  A capsize (and quick recovery) of the Dominic/Monica Albacore meant that we had tight race on our hands.  At the leeward mark (well, for most boats — Steve/Carla were already well on their upwind leg by the time the others reached leeward mark) something amazing happened…

The 29er was first to hit the mark and head upwind.  They weren’t making good headway, so they tried to foot on port tack… farther, and farther and farther.  The Albacores followed.  Luc and Jason recognized that a major shift to the right occurred, jumped immediately on starboard tack and pointed straight at the mark.  By the time the other realized their mistake, the Lasers were in 2nd and 3rd (and everyone waved to Steve and Carla crossing the finish line).  Jason was able to maintain 2nd place for the final downwind leg and finished without issue, but the real battle was between Luc and Jennie/Andrew’s quickly approaching Albacore.  The shift meant that the Albacore’s superior pointing ability didn’t come into play, and it was down to raw speed between the two on a close reach.  In the end, the Albacore took it by half a second (both boats had to check with RC to see who finished first between them).  Dominic/Monica (Albacore), Frank/Jean (Albacore), Mike T/Jasper (29er) and Mike R (Byte) rounded out the finishes.

We now quite a pack in the summer series standings — Dominic (1st place, 14 pts), Ken S (17 pts), Jason (19 pts) and Ken E (20 pts) are right in the thick of it, with one race night to go.  Also, note that we’re at 9 races currently, and one more drop comes into effect at 12.  If we somehow manage to get 3 races in next week then this will come into play.

Summer series 1 and complete season standings can be found on the racing page

Post race, Mike R (sailing the Byte) stayed on the water to help a Laser that was struggling to get back to shore in the strong winds.  The power boat whipped out with Luc, Jennie, Andrew and Jason aboard to assist, and Luc volunteered to to jump into the Laser to help the boat back.  A huge shout out to Mike R, Luc, Jennie and Andrew for keeping an eye on safety, and having fun in a safe environment is what KSC is all about!  Many thanks again to Mario for running a fantastic race, Norm for riding RC, Emily and Heidi for running mark-set/rescue boat!

The third race night of Summer Series 1 was another well attended event, with at 8 boats racing (and a couple of more out on the water).  The wind was light, favouring those with good tactical abilities.

The first race was postponed a few minutes due the need for the RC boat to assist a boat on the water (thanks Mario & Ken!) but the delayed start did not help those boats who left shore quite late and did not make the start.  Mario’s trick of rigging the anchor with a fender float meant he could quickly unhook the anchor, perform the rescue, and pick up where he left off.  Of the racers who did start, Ken S took the race in a Laser, followed by Dominic/Norm in an Albacore (with nice bright and stiff sails) and Kevin/Sammy (Albacore).  Several boats (including Steve/Corrine in the Tasar who actually would have scored 1st…) crossed the start line after the start time elapsed and were not counted as part of the race.

The second race was quite well attended with 8 (14 people) boats on the start line.  A shift to the left meant that port tack would be favoured, and a lopsided line was identified by several of the veterans.  Steve/Corinne (Tasar), Ken S (Laser), Jason/Jasper (29er) and Dominic/Norm (Albacore) all were fighting for the pin end, and got great port-tack starts.  Kevin/Sammy, Valerie/Monica (Albacore), Jennie (Byte) and Tony/Annie (Hobie 16) rounded out the start line, and we had a race!

The first “beat” saw some people (like Jason/Jasper) try to point right at the mark, while others (like Steve/Corinne) went to the left side of the course where the wind was stronger.  99.9% of the time Steve is right, but it didn’t quite pay off this time, and the 29er rounded the top mark first.  The first reaching leg was closer to the wind than most had expected, and several boats (Steve/Corinne, Kevin/Sammy) made up distance over those who had their sails out too far.  The second reach was almost dead downwind, and saw a tactical blunder by Jason/Jasper, as they elected to head up to get some boat speed.  A lull was moving in and those on a dead run made up time on those who tried to reach, with Steve/Corinne rounding the mark first, Jason/Jasper 2nd and Dominic/Norm right behind them.

A shortened course meant the final upwind leg would determine the winner.  Steve/Corrine and Dominic/Norm elected to tack immediately and head to the left of the course where it still appeared windy.  Jason/Jasper stayed pointing to the mark and attempted to reproduce their success off the start line.  Steve/Corinne took first place, and the 29er and Albacore battled it out for second.  A beautiful tack right in front of Jason/Jasper gave Dominic/Norm a push and they were able to take 2nd place, with the 29er stuck in turbulent air, and Jennie in her Byte roaring in from the left.  Jason/Jasper managed to get the boat moving again, and secured 3rd, just in front of Jennie (Byte).  Ken S (Laser) took 4th over Kevin/Sammy (Albacore), Valerie/Monica (Albacore) and Annie/Tony (Hobie 16) were left with an OCF 8th place.

The dead wind meant a paddle in for several boats, but the food and drinks (thanks Tony!) felt well earned.  Many thanks to Ken E for performing RC (and rescue) duties with Mario!

As always, race results for the entire series (and season!) can be found at http://kanatasailingclub.com/sailing/racing/