Sunny, warm and light winds made Sunday March 4th the perfect day for the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club annual Round Prevost Island Race. Ten boats and about 50 club members and guests where given the official start by Salt Spring's Jim Ballantyne at 10:30am. It was the skippers choice on which direction to sail 13.1 nautical miles around Prevost. The start of the race was down wind with the spinnakers being hoisted on the line or shortly after the start. One boat declared NFS (no flying Sails - not to fly the spinnaker) and received an extra 18 seconds per mile bonus on his handicap. The skipper was alone (his crew came down sick at the last minute - it looked like they had a bad case of new-game-computeritis) and it was a long race to fly the spinnaker single handed. The boats with spinnakers (chutes or kites) flying took off. Those big sails catch the wind just like a huge sheet would. Luckily the wind was steady and not the usual Ganges swirl and they made it out of the harbour and past the Sister islands. In true Salt Spring fashion the racers where split 50/50 on which way to go around Prevost. What is it about Salt Springers, we just can't agree on any issue. Well it was nice to see the big boats like Stuart Farson's JJ Flash and Ole Andersen's Caliente (who went the other way) going in the opposite direction on the far side of Prevost Island. From my vantage point at the rear of the fleet I hardly ever get to see them sail. I have some video of Kevin Vine sailing JJ Flash on my youtube.com/escapetosaltspring site. It's filmed on my free Telus camera and I am a beginner movie maker, but the quality is improving. The first boats around the island stopped in a little parking lot set up at the Sister Islands. It was nice to see the faster boats wait for the slower boats for a change, however, this biased the race in the slower boats favour. On a long race like this, if the slow boats can see the fast boats they generally have beat them. The winner was Greg Slakov skippering that "soon to be famous" Imp, followed by Tony McEwen with his trusty crew Dave Howell and Roland Boudreau in Saorsa. Now they were on their game this week; Saorsa ( How do you say that name? I can never get it right, see the video for the wrong pronunciation) was flying. In third place was the master racer Roger Kibble in his sleek Electra. If you ever want to see a cool looking boat check out Electra. It looks fast even when it's tied up at the dock. Then Philip Grange and his crew on Fandango. At the start of the video you will see one of Philip's crew members, John Gauld, up the mast. I did not show the crewman under the keel. Next we had David Wood and sons Dan and Josh on Final Dash. Then Mr Bob Jones on his beloved Alacrity. See Bob's closing comments on the video: "Well said, Bob". Then Ole Andersen's new red Caliente. Then myself with all my friends on Strawberry Express. Then we had JJ Flash with Kevin Vine at the helm and last again was Keith Simpson in Soul Dancer. The next race is Saturday, March 17 - the annual one-day Spring Regatta. It is a series of short races in the harbour. If you are looking to crew or race your boat e-mail ssiscracers@yahoo.com. The Club's St. Patrick's Day party is after and you must get your tickets in advance. By Scott Simmons