Race Report, Aug 27

Just a little more wind would have put an already spectacular Wednesday night over the top.  Nevertheless it was another great night of racing on Narragansett Bay…..and it was part of the “Fall” series.

At the start we called the wind from 200 at 7-8 knots, tide at the end of the flood, pin was favored, and the course posted was Start-Zp-Gates (near V)-Finish…..very interesting.  Prior to the race we thought that there was more pressure on the Jamestown side and decided to set up at the boat third of the line and then go right when we could.  At the one and only start, for a change, we were slow off the line and had to wait to clear before going hard right.  Our next problem was that we didn’t go far enough right or even left for that matter.  We got stuck in the middle and the fleet kept moving away.  North of the bridge, it looked like both corners paid off.  South of the bridge, it looked to us like the Jamestown side was favored, but you had to go far right….hindsight is wonderful.  First boats around the first mark were 59, 108, and 101.  With the wind dying and clocking to the west, Robin shortened the course and put the gates on a bearing of 035……setting up a reaching parade back up the course, with most boats staying pretty high.  We sailed a reasonably decent downwind leg, but ran out of race course before the gates.  First boats around were 59, 108, and 145.  The fleet seemed to split on the last leg with a majority favoring the right.

We were pretty far back at the finish, but it looked like the finish order was 59, 108, and 101.  Congrats to Earl Stubbs and his crew for their wire-to-wire romp.  Next time we’ll be less timid and maybe bang a corner.

Bernie Patterson  S-163