Sail Column June 4, 2002

WIND, WIND, and WIND!

By Dan Muss

On Saturday morning the weatherman was calling for winds of 10 – 15 mph although it looked more like 5 mph as we were rigging. But as we left the mooring it was easily 15 with as much as 20 in the big gusts. It was, nevertheless a beautiful day and there were about 30 sails out. The whole of Flying Scot C Fleet got off to a fine, even start but I ran into trouble almost immediately. The pin holding my tiller in place had worked loose and everything we did during that race to get it back in place was unsuccessful, mainly because it was blowing so hard. I had to keep pressure on the tiller to keep it from coming out of the rudder slot so I could not hike out or even sit up on the railing.

On the downwind leg we all had spinnakers up with Elster in the lead followed by my nemesis Rissell. We were a close third when a blast came from the beam. With the spinnaker up this presents the danger of a broach as the spinnaker swings to the side and tends to pull the boat over on its side. Rissell had very wisely decided to take his in; I let go of my sheet as my spinnaker went flying but Elster capsized.

We finally did get the spinnaker in but the port spinnaker sheet was wrapped around the boom and it wasn’t until the final windward leg that we had the boat more or less under control; all this with the loose tiller. We managed to finish right side up… we were tired but it had really been a fun race.

Back on shore we found out that Lee and Joan Coraor had also capsized, it had been a tough day.

The wind blew all night long and was still howling on Sunday morning. We heard from the committee boat that it was blowing at 20 mph and gusting to 25. That was too much for me and my fearless crew and the rest of C Fleet concurred. Even the Flying Scot A Fleet decided not to go. (They were probably more concerned about blowing out their sails than capsizing.) There were only two B Fleet boats but the Lasers were out in force. There were nine of them and they had a really good time. The Lasers capsized repeatedly but they are used to that; the two ‘Scots finished in one piece. That’s stamina and fortitude!

Race Results

Saturday, Race 1

Laser A Fleet

First Place, Nate Coraor

Second Place, Tom Johnson

Third Place, Eric Silverman

Laser B Fleet

First Place, Ryan Schubert

Second Place, Lucy Kammer

Flying Scots A Fleet

First Place, John Meredith with crew Tom Wolffe

Second Place, Ray Gauthier and crew Joni Palmer

Third Place, Mo Willey with crew Vicky Willey

Flying Scots B Fleet

First Place, Frank Vandall and crew Howard Wiley

Second Place, Dave Bertsch with crew Ronn Downey

Third Place, Deacon Spencer and crew Marie Potts Spencer

Flying Scots C Fleet

First Place, Ted Rissell and crew Carol Muss

Second Place, Ted Kemp and crew Ryan Kemp

Third Place, Ed Peters with crew Barbara Peters

Saturday, Race 2

Laser A Fleet

First Place, Keith Spinnenweber

Second Place, Nate Coraor

Third Place, Eric Silverman

Laser B Fleet

First Place, Ryan Schubert

Second Place, Lucy Kammer

Flying Scots A Fleet

First Place, John Meredith with crew Tom Wolffe

Second Place, Ray Gauthier and crew Joni Palmer

Third Place, Mo Willey with crew Vicky Willey

Flying Scots B Fleet

First Place, Dave Bertsch with crew Ronn Downey

Second Place, Frank Vandall and crew Howard Wiley

Third Place, Bob Vance with crew Karen Vance

Sunday

Laser A Fleet

First Place, Tom Johnson

Second Place, Bruce Spinnenweber

Third Place, Eric Silverman and Chris Drury

Flying Scots B Fleet

First Place, Frank Vandall and crews Howard Wiley and Sarah Buffington

Second Place, Dave Bertsch with crew Ronn Downey