Sunday October 28 saw the final official race of the 2007 year, the Jack Langdon Trophy race, a reverse handicap race to Batt Rock, Ben Mohr Rock, Batt Rock, and home. There was an unusually stable wind from the South East in the morning, which hung around all day, and gave us all a great ride.

The start times were calculated so that the first boat to cross the finish line was the winner. Accordingly, TINKER, with the highest handicap, started first at 1100. TINKER, HARP, MINKE and a Catalina 27 skippered by Jamie Squire were well on their way before ALACRITY, SOUL DANCER, ELECTRA, FANDANGO, IMP and ARBITRAGE left the start line between 37 and 43 minutes past the hour, trying to catch up. From our perspective on IMP, there was a very competitive beat, with many close crossings on the way to Batt Rock, with some adverse current near the Salt Spring shore, and some favourable ebb current further out in Captain Passage. It was then a beam reach to Nose Point, with about half the boats electing to fly a spinnaker, and the others doing quite well with white sails only.

All the spinnakers came down at Peile Point on Prevost Island, as the new course was a close reach to Ben Mohr Rock. By this time, we could see TINKER and the other leaders as they rounded the mark and started to head home. I should mention that the roundings at both Batt Rock and Ben Mohr Rocks were very crowded, and therefore very exciting. I was caught by my crew as I gawked at the traffic jam at Ben Mohr: “Steer the Boat!” At this point IMP was getting quite close to ELECTRA, but the brain trust on board made their biggest mistake of the day and started heading for home; out came the chute, and we bore off for Nose Point. It was only when we noticed that all the boats in front of us (including all the “slow” boats) were obviously pointing way higher than us that we realized that we, too, had to make the detour to Batt Rock! I wish the Fleet Captain had explained the course more clearly at the skipper’s meeting.

The Fleet rounded Batt Rock much closer together the second time as the handicapping worked its magic near the end of the race. The lead boats (ELECTRA, IMP and ALACRITY) only passed TINKER near the Second Sister. In the end, the first boat crossed the line just over 3 hours after TINKER started, and the last of the ten boats finished just 17 minutes later. It was a very close finish for all of the boats, and the reverse handicap format was a pleasant change from the standard.

Greg Slakov on IMP

Finish Order:

ELECTRA
IMP
ALACRITY
Jamie Squire
ARBITRAGE
HARP
TINKER
FANDANGO
SOUL DANCER
MINKE