Round Pender 2010, March 27 and 28

What a great weekend.

Saturday March 27 saw 10 boats on the starting line. In general, we saw 8 to 10 knots of wind from the SE all the way to Port Browning, with a patch of light shifty winds at Nose Point that delayed everyone, but Dreki the most significantly. Caliente got away slowly but surely, while Soul Thyme, Imp and Oasis travelled in a clump until Soul Thyme found a patch of favourable tide and skillfully rode it to a comanding lead. Paramour came next after getting away from Almucantar (nice to see Hugh out!) Then Minke, Deryn Mor and Empezar came in in a clump after a one-design type close race all the way.

9 of the 10 boats corrected out within 12 minutes of one another after about 3 hours of (corrected) sailing. Corrected, the first two boats were Hunters! Those who chose NFS (the first 4 boats) benefitted on this windward day. (Foreshadowing alert).

First day results are as follows:

The celebrations that afternoon and evening were generous and heartfelt. Many photos were taken, unfortunately. Noteable moments included Tony's Portugese friend's hootch/moonshine/grappa, which was generally conceded to be “drinkable” at first, but it was soon found that the better tasting liquor had settled to the bottom. The first ever party hosted by Imp took place, when perhaps 5 or 6 of us stayed below just long enough to drink a beer and admire the finely finished teak cabinetry. Keith, helped with gusto by the others, made a true mess on Ole's nice clean boat. Bowling occurred on the docks. The party then moved to the Pub, where dinner was served and pool was played, among other things.

Sunday dawned with strong rain and no wind. However, after breakfast in the fine Cafe, the rain stopped and a 10 am start was held at Razor Point in a 5 to 7 knot breeze, again from nominally SE. Tide played a big role all day, with all those going to the Saturna shore benefitting, and all those going to the Pender shore going slow. The first spinnakers were set in a light patch at the east end of South Pender. Most boats stayed close to the Pender Bluffs while Imp went out further and found a tide line, which on one side 6.0 GPS knots was possible, and a mere 4.0 knots on the other. This tide line lasted most of Pender Bluffs, allowing Imp to get away from the pack.

The revenge of the spinnakers occurred that day, with the 3 remaining NFS (after Almucantar's withdrawal) boats going slowly in the modest breeze. These were Soul Thyme, Caliente and Paramour. Minke, Empezar and Deryn Mor all did really well and came out on top. Second day results were:

Final results are:

(Note that the tiebreaker is who had the best single result over the two days.)

Look how close those results are! A huge congratulations are due for Gyle on Empezar, who has clearly come a long way in a short time. Eric on Paramour also chose this weekend to make his presence known in the fleet.

Greg Slakov on Imp.