Montague Harbour Race Sept, 7, 2008

Nine boats plus one visiting C&C turned out for the first race of the fall season. Despite the glorious weather several boats were short crew and some re-arrangements were made before the start. To avoid a treacherous downwind start, the fleet headed north to Grace Point before setting spinnakers for the run to Second Sister. Caliente took the early lead followed closely by Electra and Imp. The fleet spread out on the broad reach to Nose Point. Oasis and Arbitrage closed on the leaders into Montague, where the opposing tide and 70^o shifts of the light breeze threatened to re-arrange the fleet. Boomer came close to passing Soul Dancer while Baron Rouge and Minke played the shifts not far behind in amongst a steady stream of powerboats leaving the harbour. Caliente maintained her lead despite hitting a few dead spots through the narrows and set her spinnaker outside Sphinx for the run back to Captain’s Passage. The winds were steady back to Second Sister where they made a 180 shift and gradually diminished to near nothing for Minke and Baron Rouge who persevered to the finish. Imp, who was single handing, overtook Electra in the last leg and took first place. The crews enjoyed a snack and cool drink at the picnic tables on one of the hottest days this summer. Not sure what happened to our visitors but I’m sure they enjoyed the sail as much as the rest of us.

Keith Simpson, Soul Dancer.

Channel Islands Regatta Sept 21, 2008

The Channel Islands Regatta of 2008 featured sun, wind, rain, and an unusual tie in the standings. The weather dawned grey, cloudy with no wind to be seen. Still, 6 boats turned up for the skipper's meeting at 0925. A course was set – Ganges Shoal and back, and this basic race was used for the first three of four races. The final race was to Welbury spar and back.

I forget how all the races went, but there was a maximum of about 8 knots of wind, and down to just a couple of knots a few times. The weather cleared up and was sunny for a good portion of the day, but that was tempered by a real downpour, which thankfully lasted only a short time.

Roger Kibble organized the race, and with all the pre-race promotion, I am sure we only had 6 boats out because of the apparently lousy weather at the start of the day. Roger's race management was part of one of the most memorable moments of the day, when he set the countdown for the final start before MINKE had finished the third race! MINKE was able to finish and get right into the pre-start manoeuvring, and they were able to extract “revenge” on ELECTRA by keeping tight to the starboard start mark, forcing ELECTRA to double back and start late.

The results show a very tight regatta. BOOMER had to leave after the first two races, so I did not get their times; they will have to make do with an honourary 6^th place finish for those races. Of the remaining 5 boats, 3 of them tied! In a bizarre twist of fate, race 3 had 7 seconds separating CALIENTE, MINKE, and OASIS on corrected time at the finish. Tony Meek had told me after the race that his watch was 5 seconds fast; I flippantly told him this meant nothing. I was wrong! Without those 5 seconds, MINKE places fourth in the regatta. With them, MINKE beats OASIS in the third race, and vaults into a three way tie for second place in the series. Furthermore, the Racing Rules Appendix A8 says that “if there is a series tie ... each boat's race scores shall be listed in order of best to worst, and at the first point(s) where there is a difference the tie shall be broken in favour of the boat(s) with the best scores.” Therefore, MINKE's 5 seconds in one race puts them from fourth to second in the series!!! Can you beat that!!!

Greg Slakov on IMP.