It was a dark and stormy day....with little wind.
John was becalmed during the warm up and had to swim to shore. But as we were
contemplating a drift-a-thon around the no-wake buoys, a puff appeared. John
remained skeptical about how long the wind would last and remained on shore.
Much to Matthew's consternation, the chairman of the race committee and the race
director made a last second decision and changed the course to a downwind/upwind
sprint to the five mile marker and back. Then the wind really picked up as the
whistle blew.
There we were, heading dead downwind, with the storm clouds fast approaching.
For a good while everyone was planing or on the verge of popping up in
displacement mode. Charles took the early lead, followed by Dana and Randy.
Matthew was looking good, but took a spill in the wake of Randy's turbulent
Formula exhaust. I brought up the rear. Dana held me off at the mark, and I
remained in last place going into the upwind leg. But the Longboards had their
Revenge. On his classic 1985 Mistral Superlight and brand new 10.0 Severne,
Charles made it to the finish line 7 minutes ahead of everyone else. I finished
second on my 1994 Alpha Cat with 8.5 Aerotech. Matthew and Dana duked it out for
third, they were neck and neck for the last 100 yards. Matthew prevailed on the
Nightingale memorial 1989 F2 Lightning and an 8.0 Aerotech. Dana claimed fourth
on his F2 Phoenix 320 (sans centerboard) and a 9.5 World. Randy finished fifth
on his Bic Formula with a large sail of unknown size.
We contemplated a second heat, but the sound of thunder sent us cowering to
shore. Before we could finish packing up the torrential rain began. We were all
thoroughly drenched.
| Name | Heat 1 |
|---|---|
| Charles Livaudais | 1 |
| Mark Kernodle | 2 |
| Matthew Prior |
3 |
| Dana Thalheimer | 4 |
| Randy Dunn | 5 |