Laser: Wednesday Hotdog

It occurred to me that with all the "motorboating" that seems to be going on at the moment, I should perhaps mention that I am still getting a bit of sailing in.

This Wednesday evening last the conditions were significantly lighter that the week before. The wind was in an awkward direction, blowing onto the lake over the clubhouse, so as well as being light, it was also very shifty. Which was both an advantage and a peril, depending upon how you played it. And how it played you.

The Race Officer ran proceedings from the shore, not unusual for a Wednesday night, so that set us up with a reaching start on port down the length of the lake to a starboard rounding at the gybe mark. Which made for a fair bit of confusion on the start line, but conditions were benign and the fleet well behaved so everything went off without mishap.

I managed to win some reasonably clear air for the long fetch down to the first mark, so rounded with the front of the fleet, albeit needing to give room to the bulk of a Wayfarer gybing around the mark inside of me. The first gybe was followed by a reach across the width of lake before finally rounding up on to the beat back.

Which compensated for the long, slow drag down, as the convergence where the wind effectively wrapped around the clubhouse made for some interesting choices that either paid off or punished, so split the fleet out nicely over the first lap and left me out in front and hounded by Andy and Joan in their Graduate and Camilla in her Aero, the three of us chasing chasing Burt who'd broke out to lead the fleet with his OK. And it pretty much was for the rest of the race.

Out of the fleet of twenty-four boats that started I finished fourth on the water, seconds behind the Graduate, but took 3rd place after the times were adjusted for handicap (albeit still behind the Grad, who took 2nd).