2 Races, 2 Gybes, Great Lobster..!
Long Island Sound in July can be notorious for no wind and Saturday was no exception for the one design competitors eagerly anticipating competition as part of Larchmont race week!
Finally, after what seemed like hours in the baking heat and humidity, the unscheduled, but much appreciated northerly arrived precipitating a frenzy of action to get the fleets moving.
Unfortunately, this didn’t produce the best racing…at least for race one!
For Race one the pin end was so biased that you couldn’t cross the line on Starboard, which led to some novel start line antics. …And, it was a fetch to the first mark on port!, then a procession down the run and finally a change mark!!! That was better positioned.
In race one Scott Kauffman, visiting from Shelter Island made the best of this schmozzle after following Senet Bischoff and Donny Down around for the first two legs, he was able to pounce for the victory!
Race two was a much better set up in the tricky northerly, with what looked like a boat biased line, actually shifting pin favored in pressure and shift in the countdown to the gun.
Girling led off the pin third and soon tacked, but it was Biscoff who had tacked away earlier, who was now digging into better pressure in the fanning puffs. These two boats worked middle left, only for the boats further right, including Donny Dowd, Michael Gavin, Dan Smith and Charles Kenahan to come in strong and lead at the weather mark.
The next puff coming in from the left on the run meant an early gybe to get into position and at the leeward mark it was Dowd, Bischoff and Smith going to the right gate and Gavin leading Girling and Hitchcock to the left gate.
Up the second beat, Dowd and Bischoff managed to escape the left as the dominant pressure seemed to be from the middle.
Dowd did a nice job consolidating his lead, Girling got to the left of the others at the top to round second with Gavin, Bischoff and Kenehan right on his transom. Kenahan was first to gybe into new pressure followed by Bischoff and Gavin, they crossed the line in that order.
Although we saved the two gybes for the second race, we all appreciated the RC’s perseverance in the testing conditions!
After racing, the fleet was treated to a delicious lobster dinner on Saturday evening on the beautiful Larchmont Yacht Club lawn.
Fingers are crossed for the sea breeze on Sunday!
By Steve Girling
USA 1412