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.