Round Prevost Race, Sept 26, 2010

The 2010 version of the annual Round Prevost Race had a (probable) record attendance of 16 boats. (TONIC was also rumoured to have started, but much later than everyone else!) Roger Kibble used his impressive advertising skills to contact and recruit several boats into the their inaugural SISC race. The skippers' meeting occurred a little late, as John Lugsdin had smashed one of his fingernails, and Roger was busy trying to staunch the flow of blood. As a result, the race instructions may not have been as clear as needed, because some competitors thought that the (potential) short course was the entire course!

It turned out to be a fairly typical SISC Fall race, with periods of wind, no wind, sun, fog, and drizzle. CALIENTE aced the start on a port tack but JJFLASH was caught with a mainsail problem and so had to play catch up. The leading four boats gradually put some distance on the fleet and JJFLASH showed impressive speed up to the Sisters. The wind was light until we passed the Second Sister, where it piped up to perhaps 8 knots, and most boats were able to reach Pt Lidell at the south end of Prevost, which had been designated as the short course terminus. After that, the south east wind really died. The fleet compressed as the trailing boats nearly caught up with the leaders in Swanson Channel. The fog rolled in as well, and the boats periodically lost touch with one another, despite the fact that they were withing hailing distance. At one point, the top half of a Spirit Class Ferry appeared right next to about 6 masts poking out of a very low bank of fog. During this period, several skippers decided that wallowing about, and going backwards in the tail of the ebb tide was just too much fun, and they headed back home to prepare for the salmon BBQ.

Those skippers that waited the fog out were treated to more wind and some sun as the east wind came up to perhaps 8 knots and wafted them home. CALIENTE got line honours at about 3 pm, and boats kept on arriving until about 5 pm. Martin Herbert on Kay D got stuck in a hole at the north end of Prevost, and finally decided to paddle home, only to be found by a nice new breeze a few minutes after starting to paddle. DERYN MOR had a great battle with VELICA right down to the finish line.

Everyone who started qualified for the raffle for the bottle of Scotch, which was won by Jeremy Milsom on SABLE – congratulations, Jeremy. Almost everyone recorded their times which are included in the table below. ("Short" signifies a short course time). In addition, all boats who finished are now entered in the Round Prevost Challenge, which has its own prize giving, at the annual Awards Night on December 5.

The BBQ that evening was lively and delicious, as usual. The regular racers would like to welcome the new racers to the fleet, and we hope that this will be the first of a long and happy series of races together. We encourage all the entrants and indeed all SISC sailors to take the Prevost Challenge anytime up to early December. Good luck to Derek Barrio, Michael Clark, Rob Denny and many others who hope to have a go .