Wind Dancer crew turns the leeward mark
Photo by Race Committee |
After some wetness in the morning, the sun came out and the westerly 10 mph winds made for a great sailing day Sunday. "Wind Dancer," sailed by Pat Dolan, Carolyn Combs and Gil Chesbro was the hot boat, scoring wins in all three races. "Our pre-race compass prep really paid off today," said Dolan. "We got in phase early and caught nearly all the shifts. In addition, Carolyn was exceptional in her first crewing effort. We got a little practice in before racing, but only had time to cover the basics. However, when we ended up needing to do some gybe sets and ran into the usual number of problems that always seem to come up, she really stepped up and was terrific." Carolyn and her family are among the new members this year learning to sail.
In race one, John LeFevre took charge early. With great speed to windward he walked over the rest of the fleet to be first at the windward mark. With crew Tom Hutton and Luke Bowman, "Sail Fevre" got the spin going and sailed good angles to hold their position at the leeward mark. "Then I tacked too soon on the second windward," said LeFevre, "and in a lull - giving other boats a chance to catch up." Still, the "Sail Fevre" crew had a solid day with two fourths and a fifth.
Ron Marshall took his first turn at skipper this season, sailing "Oh m" with John Kolstoe and Gary Marx. Although Ron spent many years at the helm of "Oh m" before contributing it to the Club, it was seldom that they sailed with a spinnaker and the boat has seen some control line changes. All this, together with having new crew members to mold into a team, made for a challenging day. Still, they made it work.
Blaine Severin and loyal crew members Tom Deits and Julie Pierce spent much of the day going right on the upwind legs, anticipating that the wind would be clocking and hoping to take advantage of this by being right. However, there seemed to consistently be more wind on the left and the persistent shift right didn't come until the final race was underway and the race became more follow-the-leader than providing tactical opportunities. The crew of "Unidentified Flying Pigasus" ended up third each time.
Mike Moody sailed with Susanna Wagner and Emma Trentman and sailed well to place second each time. And they were a bit unlucky, having to recover from troubles at several starts, picking a less windy side of the course and being in a trailing position when race three turned into a drag race. In one start they were over the line and had to return and restart. In another race, they tacked right after the start expecting to cross the fleet, but got caught in an adverse shift and ended up tacking back - giving up some valuable boat lengths. In the second race they were bow to bow with "Wind Dancer" throughout and managed a split on the final upwind. However, their play to the right didn't work out when their opponent found more wind on the left.
"Bo Jangles II" was solid as usual with Merrick Hurlbutt, Scott and Adrianne Watkins sailing the boat. Two fifth place finishes started the day and then they moved up to fourth in the final. Jim Fletcher had Eddie Fletcher and Brad Kleihege aboard "Splash" and gave his crew good marks. "That spinnaker was up quickly and full. Great job by the crew". Brad has been an outstanding junior sailor this summer, joining the Wednesday Laser sailors with some good results and now getting his taste of Lightning crewing. A busy guy, Brad also recently tried out for and got a part in the upcoming Haslett Hight School "Guys and Dolls".
Complete results and standings can be found on the Lansing Sailing Club website at www.lansingsailing.org. Click on "Racing" then on the fleet symbol.
And there's the start signal
Photo by Stephen Wagner |
Maneuvering for a start position
Photo by Stephen Wagner |
Action at the Leeward Mark
Photo by Race Committee |
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