Round Prevost Island Race October 4, 2009

A beautiful fall day, bright sunshine and a warm Northwesterly wind stirring up whitecaps in the harbour.

A strong turnout of 12 boats including the newly renamed Yolanda (Yeoman of Cestria) rejoining the fleet after being in Vancouver for a few years; as well as Naru and Tango del Angel joined the regulars for the annual Round Prevost race. A challenging tactical race where choice of direction, wind and tides can have a big affect on the outcome.

With 10-15 knot winds at the start for a downwind leg out of the harbour and higher winds forecast most boats chose to declare NFS. A short upwind leg around the Grace Point marker got the race underway with Electra rounding slightly ahead of Caliente. Spinnakers went up on Kay D, Electra and Oasis and as Electra pulled away, the wind strength temporarily dropped and the other skippers were left questioning their NFS decision. Caliente, wing on wing down the harbour kept up well with Oasis under spinnaker and with Oasis chose to run down past the Channel Isles for an anti-clockwise circuit around Prevost. Electra having also committed to a similar coarse made a late decision to head for Captain Passage and the rest of the fleet followed as winds appeared to be stronger on the backside of Prevost.

With wind strength building, Oasis rounded Point Liddell slightly ahead of Caliente. At Portlock Point the the fleets met with Electra and Kay D leading the clockwise boats and the race was still wide open for either group. Caliente led Oasis up the backside of Prevost, spilling wind off the main sheet as winds gusted to 20 knots. At Captain Passage, Electra and the rest of the fleet could be seen beating towards the harbour. Caliente and Electra entered the harbour first with Electra slightly ahead but Caliente having the better line. With winds holding Caliente having to make fewer tacks crossed the line first with Electra 3 minutes behind. Oasis crossed 3 minutes later followed by Arbitrage and Naru just holding off KayD for 5th. All boats finished with Tara`s Whisper crossing the line 80 minutes after Caliente to great cheers from the peanut gallery on the dock.

On corrected time, Naru was the winning boat - congratulations to casual racer Peter Toby who single handed his boat to a great finish. A weather beaten Martin Herbert on Kay D was second and Electra third. Ultimately the direction probably had little bearing on which boat won as the corrected times of the top six boats were within 10 minutes. A fantastic day on the water and a rare race where conditions suited all the boats equally.

Pete McGovern

Fleet Captain Racing