Giants Head, 2011

They say they get big winds down in the South end of the valley, but I have yet to see them on any running of the annual Giants Head Regatta hosted by the Summerland Yacht Club.  This year was no different with the healthy 26 boat fleet facing an hour long postponement prior to starting.  The breeze gradually started to fill in to a light 4 knot Northerly.  The starting sequence was fleets CBA and WS in an attempt to help most fleets finish together before the 5:30 cut off time.  It's always a little bit of black magic to determine accurately which shore will be the favored one for the uphill leg to Rattle Snake Island and this year was no different.  Initially it looked like staying close to the Western shore might pay off with the entire fleet thinking the same thing.  Two boats ran aground in the very shallow bays just North of the SYC and managed to free themselves after some very impressive acrobatic displays not seen since highschool gym class.  As the fleet worked North is became much more in doubt as to which shore would give the big lift everyone was waiting for to slingshot us up past Squally Point.  This is always a big turning point of the race because if you are on the wrong shore when the lift happens you have a very long headed sail across the lake to get back to the proper side.  The first of the fleet was approaching Rattle Snake Island and started to run Southbound through the narrow channel.  The downhill leg was much more straight forward with the biggest obstacle being avoiding sailing into one of the many holes of dead air throughout the race course.  It sounded like the West shore was the optimum place to be, that's where Maximus, the Elliott 770, position themselves to put themselves near the head of the fleet.  Also in the mix were TBA, the J29 from KYC and Ghost Rider.  I think there was also an Andrews 26 right up there also but forgive me for not recalling the name.  I will post the overall results as soon as I receive them.  All in all it was an exceptional day on the water offering an always challenging and welcome break from around the cans racing.  Thank you SYC for a well run regatta and hope to see you down there next year.