Saturday, June 8 - NOOD Circle C

Saturday began with a postponement on shore for all circles due to a lack of wind. The AP was lowered at 1030, allowing for a 1145 start, but the velocity did not meet race standards for another hour. At 1131 the first warning was signaled for the fleets. With a light but building breeze, the course was set at 060 with weather marks at 1.5 nm and 1.25 nm.

As boats were on the first beat, the course was nearly set when the offset mark got fouled in the weather boat’s prop. They were able to set an anchor, raise the Mike flag (indicating that the boat itself was a mark) and made repeated sounds. That effort maintained the required course configuration and boats rounded the makeshift offset without incident.  The sailors made no complaints, although it was an odd situation and the mark/boat was slightly low of its normal position.  This move saved the race and if we'd had to abandon, we would have lost at least two hours in addition to the postponement.  A Blue Star for Jeff G.

The situation allowed Captain Lynn L to show her best today, after spending most of the morning with the judges on an ORR scoring question (Circle C has no ORR boats, but Circle A has some). Meeting the weather markset boat on Kay Baxter, with Sue R, the rep from Sailing World, aboard, Lynn made 20 diving attempts to free the mark from the prop but unfortunately without success. Jeff G. is also to be commended for making repeated diving attempts as well. 

With the mark unable to be freed from the windward mark boat, Independence, the circle’s leeward boat captained by Jane M, set a new start line before going to weather to re-position the long course marks for the second race of the day. Kay Baxter was able to obtain and set the short course marks before heading down to help call the line for starts. Accurate, efficient adjustments were also made to the gate and finish pin in fashion throughout the day by the leeward mark boat team - a tremendous job that was performed in an upbeat manner.

At the weather end, Lynn and Sue keep track of the wind, provided valuable feedback on the course and eventually towed the Vanenna back to harbor. The quality of the races would have been considerably compromised without their exemplary effort.

In all, three races were sailed by the J/111s while all other sections sailed two. Race 3 maintained the same 040 bearing as Race 2 but the 111s raced a shorter 1.25 nm course. Overall, that fleet has completed 7 races, compared to 6 for the J/109s and 5 for all other sections.