It turned out that the racing took place on the last weekend of summer here in Ohio, metereologically speaking. Racing started Saturday under sunny skies and light, messy southerly breezes. In fact, all three races Saturday were in light, messy southerly breezes. The first race on Sunday was in a half-hearted SW, but the last race finished in a blustery W-N-W, with cold rain to unrig by. This last race was around the course set for SW, but when the leaders were 150 yards or so from the leeward mark the wind shifted as if following orders, and the last windward-leeward-windward turned into screaming two-sail reach-screaming two-sail reach-screaming two-sail reach. Nice stuff, but positions were fixed at the leeward mark the first time around. (Don't blame the committee for not altering course. The Sandusky regattas are intended to be three-race series. They let us 5-ohs use their marks for extra races in which we gave ourselves rabbit starts. The committee let us play while they tended to other business.)
The committee-started races were on a standard Gold-Cup layout. In all races, there were holes that could have been avoided, there was the typical power-boat chop (except early Sunday morning; nyaa, nyaa, losers ;-}), yet there were times that crew got to extend their legs. The first two reaches were sweaty affairs, but the wind did seem to be a tad more stable as the day wore on. The racing was tight among the first three boats. Each boat had the opportunity to nip at the heels of the other two in every race of the series. Graham set the pace early by having a good start and leading at each mark in the first race, but both John and Ki were heel-nippers. In the remaining races, various boats were first to the first windward mark, but superior boat speed (or a miraculous wind sense) allowed John/Dave to filter to the front. Graham/Mark and Ki/John were well matched in boat speed and shared 2's and 3's for 2-5. However, in every race, John had to cover or lose one of them. He covered. Myself and Mike Agrell were wannabe's. We sort of finished each race as the kid brother might follow a big brother and his friends at the mall, right behind 'em but not quite brave enough to be right up there. It wasn't for lack of trying. In two of the five races, we were second to the windward mark, in one we were second to the jibe mark, but I swear the wind is allergic to the light blue of my hull, or something like that. At some point in every race, we watched a hole settle in around us. We'd dig out as quickly as possible, but by then, our heroes had moved on. Whine--whine...
Jim/Charlie and Phil/Susan hung in like bulldogs, but neither could muster the boat speed of us front guys. I think a bit of frustration settled in, particularly for Jim, because he had gone faster earlier in the year. After hours of contemplation, I realize that the wind was weird. Some of the holes were well disguised, and there were small but profound irregularities. For example, in the last race, Mike and I were cruising along on port tack, well ahead of everybody but Ki, who was at most two boat-lengths ahead of us. John/Dave were three or four boat-lengths back but in clear air to leeward of us. John/Dave were a hair faster than we were at the time, but usually we were pointing maybe 5 degrees higher. A glance later, John/Dave would be going twice our speed, but 20 degrees lower. On six different occasions during that tack (a matter of three minutes), John/Dave were well tucked; no, they were five boat-lengths ahead; no, we'll clear them if they tack; nope, they're gone. I could go on. The point is, I think Jim and Phil were victims of these conditions. Neither Phil nor Jim have the time in the boats that the others of us do, so I suspect that they are not as used to this summer's breezes as the rest of us are. [Sound like Kingston, folks? Well, we midwesterners have had it all year (with one glorious exception: Hoover 1995), and we're *Tired* of it!]
But, as usual, we had a wonderful time getting together again. There is certainly nothing else I'd rather be doing; well, almost nothing else.
News flash: true, I think. Mike Breton and family are moving to Chicago. More hard-core 5-ohers in the Midwest! Condolences, East Coast...
Race 1 2 3 4 5 Total
John Dohan/Dave Zetti 2 1 1 1 1 5
Graham Alexander/Mark Koenig 1 3 2 3 2 10.75
Ki Kaiser/John Badtke 3 2 3 2 3 13
Dave Stetson/Mike Agrell 4 4 4 4 4 20
Jim Colegrove/Charlie Roy 5 5 5 5 5 25
Phil Terman/Susan Badtke 6 6 6 6 6 30