McMILLAN TROPHY RACE February 8, 2009

Eight boats lined the club breakwater at 1000 on Sunday morning. There was not a breath of wind. We had skippers meeting and delayed the start to 1100. At 1040 there was about 3 knots of wind from the N.West and a spinnaker start was made at the appointed time with boats on both tacks that called for some abrupt maneuvering.

Progress towards Batt Rock was slow with many holes. IMP, CALIENTIE & FANDANGO stayed near the Salt Spring shore while JJ FLASH & OASIS stayed North of the rumb line. BOOMER gave up at Second Sister while IRIE & EMPEZAR came to a halt not far past Ganges Shoal. The lead boats changed position frequently however IMP, CALIENTIE & FANDANGO rounded Batt Rock in unison with OASIS about 50 yards behind.

It was going to be tough getting through Captains Passage if the wind did not fill in. IMP decided they had better things to do and were soon followed by CALIENTIE. JJ FLASH was coming up in fine style with big main and drifter but to our surprise headed off to Long Harbour with smoke & bubbles coming from the stern. OASIS was in the middle of the passage and could see some wind ahead and was gratified when numbers started to climb (slowly) on the knot meter. FANDANGO was closer to the Prevost shore and was missing this little puff so the motor was started and OASIS was left on her own.

OASIS started to have a bit of a sail so proceeded on to the Ben Mohr buoy. We saw 5 knots on the meter, we were staring to have fun so pressed on even though a 1600 or before finish appeared unlikely. Just before the buoy Kevin said “hey guys we had a late start cut off is 1630” This was a whole new ball game and Tom started looking at halyard tension and the location of sheet leads on the track. I will not bore you with our spinnaker run/reach from Ben Mohr to the finish except to say we did see over 6 knots briefly and completed the course at 16.17.52.

Ah, the beer at the dock tasted real good.

Bob Jones on OASIS