Day 5 Second Day of Racing at Sandy Douglass Regatta

Yes we are falling woefully behind so Kim is stepping in to help us get caught up.

One race planned for today (Sunday). Gray skies, moment of brightness and blue, then more gray with some drizzle thrown in. We were ready for inclement weather with our fowl weather gear and Fowler sails!
Early morning dreariness before the breeze arrives.

The puffs remained big, likely over 20 knots, as we saw more Scot bottoms than usual, the wind causing more heel than you'd like for efficient and speedy Scot sailing.

We wonder how are friends are doing in Toms River (Lightning ACCs) and in the Cape (Daysailer NACs). The weather folks were not giving the greatest forecasts for the conditions in the northeast.

Finishing the course was the goal for the day and we achieved it! Not spending any more money on broken parts was a secondary bonus! We had our share of fire drills, though…hope we have the kinks out, as we cannot afford these mishaps in WI! Dave mashed is big toe in some uncoordinated maneuver so a new toe nail will be in his future.

Going into the day, John Meredeth with crew Tom Wolffe were tied for first (at three points each) with Chris and the family Danilek: Linda, Lee, and Roger.
Local knowledge prevailed with Tom and John winning the race and the day. The Danileks had the additional challenge of digging out from and around-end maneuver at the start. Good Show!

The Winners!!

Our housemates for the weekend were third in the race today, the Blonski family from Ohio sailed 3 up with father Paul skippering, daughter Jody and son Paul Jr. as crew, they were 4th in the overall standings. Local rock star Joni Palmer and crew Darrell Van Hutten were 3rd in the final standings with an 8th for today.

Melanie, Bill and Courtney Dunham invited us to dinner with Mel's parents and their 2 labs Mocha and Jibe. Harry and Karen Carpenter joined us with Buffet (golden retriever) and while Missy had about all the canine companionship she could take, we had a lovely time with friends.

Buffet and Jibey sharing the tennis ball

These two did this for about three hours

Day 4 First Day of Racing at Sandy Douglass Regatta

Breezy, warm mostly nice day with gusty, shifty breeze which peaked at about 22 knots. Deep Creek Lake lived up to its reputation as super shifty but John Meredith and Chris Danilek were unfazed with each getting a first and second to end the day tied.

Two races in and 2 DNFs for us. During the first race as were were rounding the leeward mark to go upwind the rudderhead strap that holds the mainsheet lower block broke. There was a powerboat close by offering a tow so we dropped the flogging mainsail and tossed them a line. The schedule includes a lunch stop in between the first and second races so we figured we would snag a new part form Harry, grab some lunch and be good for the second race. We didn't anticipate being forced onto a rocky leeward shore by a nameless, overzealous challenger fleet boat. This was the reason I filed a protest although racing rules are not real specific about such situations. The protest was dismissed and the full story too long for me to tell here. Fortunently, the damage to the tow boats prop is not too severe and only our rudder hit the rocks so nothing a file can't fix. I was sweating the centerboard, for sure but it's ok.

Lots of overly aggressive sailing, seemed kinda un-Scot-like. Knowing how hard we race in the Florida District Championship with rarely a protest and not too much shouting has me thinking we are pretty fortunate.

We even broke the cooler but the ice and beer were unaffected.