Six boats came out for the race on a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon. Due to winds that were even more erratic than normal, and an overambitious course for the conditions, no one finished within the time limit. Details after the break.
The start was rescheduled, and then further postponed, due to the Kinetic Skulpture race activity in our starting area. During the delay it was observed on the dock that the wind, which was forecast to be a 10 – 15 kt. southerly, was about 5 kts. and was reversing frequently between an easterly and a westerly with seemingly no lull in between. As the last kinetic contraption left the area the wind died completely.
After ten minutes the wind came back more strongly and steadily from the northeast. The water didn’t show up any dead areas locally and there was an occasional whitecap on the far side of the bay. The course was set for SBTBF, the intention being that BT was close to a windward/leeward leg in the northeasterly. Unfortunately, it turned out the northeasterly was local to the starting area, once around Point Hudson the wind became northerly and so light that the fleet barely stemmed the flood tide and took half an hour to round the mark. It was later discovered that the stronger wind on the far side of the bay was a southerly and that the wind shifted wildly, even reversing, all across the bay. Time ran out before the fleet returned to B. The leading boats, Dorado and Sirocco, persisted and crossed the line about 15 and16 minutes after the limit.
Before the first boat approached the tower the RC attempted to contact the fleet on VHF Ch 68. We wanted to shorten the course by returning directly to the finish from the tower, but only one boat responded to the radio calls. Later an offer was made to extend the time limit provided all boats continued to sail the course, but as they were not monitoring VHF most boats quit racing when time ran out.
This week we were joined by Temptress, a Luders 24. She is a lovely classic sloop from the 1940’s and has been beautifully restored. She is scheduled to be shipped to Florida so we may not see her again.