November Race

The race was held on November 5 at Jordan Lake. The forecast was quite lousy - only 6 mph from NE, with max temperature at 55. It turned out a little better, the wind was about 5-8, enough to get longboards moving, and it was from N-NNW, so a better direction from Ebenezer Point. 5 sailors showed up, 3 with longboards, Bill with his free formula board and Dana with a centerboard-free slalom board. We did four heats that were mostly as exciting as a chess game. Johan was well ahead with his 11.7 sail powering an Mistral Equipe II. Michal was following well behind on a borrowed Mistral Superlight powered by a 10.9 sail. Even when Johan had trouble making the upwind mark, that was not enough help for Michal to catch up to him. The real excitement was the race for the third place, between Bill and Mark. In fact both of them managed two third place and and two fourth place finishes, leaving no easy ways to break the tie. Luckily for Mark, he had the rulebook with him and found the tie-breaking rule, which favors the sailor with a better finish in the last heat (I guess this is where it helps to race till the end). Since Mark was ahead in the last heat, he took the fourth place. Special recognition goes to Dana who raced on a slalom board without a centerboard, and still managed to finish very close to the pack. He really had a tough time going in the very light wind. Here are the final results:

Open