Spring Race 2005
What a day!! Wind was blowing 5-10, Overcast skies, Temp was about 70o It was a great day to race and wanting to make the course easy, I made it a “Windward – Leeward” Race. I placed a mark up the lake off the first major point on the north east side of the lake and then John Davis set up the starting line somewhat off the dam. It turned out that we started on a reach and returned pinching into the wind.
As you can see from the scores, Warren Hughes, sailing Key Mist, Jimmy Harrell’s former San Juan 23, won first place for the day. ( I believe his first ever 1St. place sailing trophy ) What the scores does not show is that he DOMINATED the race by finishing first over the line much of the time. Note: His and Ron Katz’s San Juan 23 was rated the slowest boats in the fleet of six boats racing. Those new sails and bottom paint really paid off on this race. Congratulations, Warren, on some really great racing.
I volunteered weeks ago to do race committee for the day. Not long after most of the boats had arrived, I was convinced by the other racers, that I could do race committee and race my Morgan 24 too, with everyone keeping their own time for the finishes. Well… I did the starts using the 5 minute sequences, a wind powered horn, and announcing the count down on the VHF Radio. That part worked out pretty well, especially the VHF radio countdown, but then I had to line up and be ready to race also. I was quite busy until after the starting horn, but then it was time to get the sails set and start the race for me. I usually got a pretty good start and was close to the lead boat by the time the first leg was finished. By pinching up close on the return leg, I was able to be one of the first two boats across the finish line each time and then mark each racer’s scores on the racing sheets. With stuff scattered all over the cockpit of my Linda Jean, we completed 5 races.
I provided a first place trophy for this race day. It had a wood base with the LJSC logo engraved in the wood and a sailboat mounted on top. Very nice looking! The 2Nd, 3Rd, & 4Th place trophies were provided by Sherry Davis. These were really great and much sought after. Each of these was a plastic container filled with Homemade Sugar Cookies. Not only that, but each of the cookies were cut and decorated to look like sailboats or other nautical items. Each container had a cookie on the top, which was decorated to indicate 2Nd, 3Rd, or 4Th place. Sherry, your cookies will always be remembered by the all who raced in the 2005 Spring Race. Thank you John and Sherry, for all your help in making this day such a great day to be a member of the Lake Juliette Sailing Club.
Bob Horan
Race Committee for the Day