F1, 2012

Oh what a day it was indeed!  What started off today as a light Southerly build to a truly adventurous outing for most racers for the first KYC Fringe series.  The course was to be SAPCPAF and offered little in the way of winds.  We had a very shifty 5 knots out of the South that constantly swung from a boat end to a pin end favored start line.  Most boats stacked up towards the pin end on starboard tack during the final 90 seconds of the sequence.  The winds quickly shifted left with most everyone flipping over to port within the first minute of the race.  We were able to hold a port tack all the way to the windward A mark and tack onto starboard for the offset mark.  Now this was something new to our race course for this season and I really liked it today.  We have a proper offset mark, which admittedly was a little too long, however it was much easier to prep for the spinnaker hoist not beating upwind but rather on a reach to the offset.  If there was any part of today's race that left us wanted more it was the hole we managed to get caught in for about 15 minutes on the initial run.  We tried to stick closer to the yacht club but had to endure watching most of the fleet closer to the middle of the lake sail on and leave us in their dust.  The breeze finally filled in with a vengeance just as we sailed by Sutherland Bay.  I estimate we saw a steady 20 knots with gust to 30 for most of the race.  We managed to narrow the gap between us and the race leaders even passing 2 of the 4 lead boats.  J and a freshly minted Ghost Rider held on to their leads but we must have been getting pretty big in their rear view mirrors as the race stretched on.  If I had to pick a favorite moment it was the  run from C back to the pump house which we did under spinnaker and jib at a sustained 10-12 knots of boat speed.  What a rush it is when the nose comes up and Litonya's bow comes out of the water.  Despite the slim number of boats represented on the score card, there was actually a strong turn out today, however many dropped out of the race due to high winds or possibly have not paid their registration dues yet.  A strong showing by J with Danny F at the helm and it was great to see the Ghost back in the water after a 9 month vacation on the hard.  I had the cameras rolling today which should make for some great footage, check it out tomorrow on www.oksailing.com

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