It was a cloudy chilly day with air temps in the 50s.   That, cranes that don’t work, a small craft advisory (winds in the teens with gusts up into the 20s), and a scary email about the dangers of falling into cold water (about 52F) kept sailors away.

Nevertheless, Stew Harris, Barney Harris and a team of I-20 sailors took the two skiff out and set up Olympic courses for the two Lightnings, one Albacore, and one Laser.   We all started together.  The Lightnings did not fly their spinnakers.

The wind was a combination of a westly off of the airport and a northerly.   In race 2, Frank Gallagher in Lightning “Resistance Is Futile” couldn’t make the pin and so was very late starting but nonetheless got to the windward mark first because he worked those two winds well.

Barney followed us around and took video with commentary about our sail trim.  That will be posted soon for your education and amusement.

Tyler Philips and Laura Windecker in Albacore “Free Ride” had a classic capsize to windward at the gybe mark in race 3 as they were bearing off for the gybe and were hit by a puff.  I think they should have delayed their gybe until the boat was up to speed in the puff.  But, hey, Monday morning quarterbacking is easy (and fun).

We are using the 3-minute sequences and with higher winds and flapping sails it is easy to miss the sound signals,  So I used my watch as backup.

The results aren’t very interesting with only 1 Albacore and 1 Laser so I won’t post just yet.