Lots of sunshine was welcome after a miserable couple of days of rain and chilly temps. The seabreeze had a difficult time developing as the high pressure west, northwest breeze wouldn't quite let up. Starting from Q at Spurling Point the sailors had a short beat into the Manset shore to Fleet Mark D followed by a coast-to-coast run to J off the northwest corner of East Bunker Ledge. A long beat to Seawall ensued with the wily Flirt working the shifts in their favor. A turn to starboard brought the boats back to Bear Island with a beat back to Gilpatrick Cove with a more westerly angle on the north side of the harbor.
Congrats to Flirt for winning the finale and to Hal Kroeger and his team on Far Out who took the overall season series honors. Twelve boats joined the fray this year and the breeze conditions were quite remarkable.
A rather damp day but a spectacular sailing breeze enticed sailors away from their favorite book and the fireplace. Knowing that competitors enjoy great and challenging ocean courses, the fleet was sent from Greenings to the far corner of Baker Island, down to Old Whale on the way to Bah Hahbah and back to Fleet Mark S at Gilpatrick. The breeze really cranked in after the start with gusts in the upper teens and I'm sure you had a bumpy climb out to Baker's Island. Hopefully, the reach was a gas. Everything started to lighten up as the afternoon wore on and your RC (after running 4 Luders races inside) raced out to Otter Point to shorten course and kill the action. Thanks to Nat Paine who assisted on Shearwater today. Congrats to Tom Rolfes and his great crew who really hit the throttle hard today.
Race 6 of the Haaland Series had the fleet starting at Mark Q, heading out to Long Ledge, back to the outside green can at Islesford/ Cranberry harbor, over to Bowden Ledge and back to Gilpatrick. It was a seabreeze which really didn't get going. The SE breeze gave way to a light SW breeze and the two seemed to fight each other. Yuck. The fading breeze made it challenging for the sailors to get back in against the ebbing current and the plug was pulled at W off Bear Island. Eventually, Va Pensiero, Triad, and Flying Fish through in the towel and started the motor up. Congrats to Hal Kroeger and his team on Far Out who won and Courtney Jenkins who finished second.Season scores are posted below. As a side note, the DNFs today are listed as DNC. The points are the same and in a high point system (CHIPS3) it corrects everyone to number of boats that finish.
Next week is the singlehanded race and we will start it in a pursuit style format to minimize the starting line crowd. IODs will race with spinnakers for a separate trophy for that race only.
It was a chamber of commerce day in Acadia. The skies began to clear this morning and we had cool dry temps combined with a blazing sun and a NW puffy breeze from 8-15 knots. Racing started at the Spurling gong 'Q' and sailors beat into Kings Point to round fleet mark N. The next buoy was 'G' on the SE corner of Baker Island which led to a dilemma of which way to go around the Cranberries to get there. Another option would be to leave Great Cranberry to starboard and Islesford to port. This would have involved shooting the gut at a pretty darn low tide. Nobody tried it. However Courtney Jenkins in Eagle did try the outer route on the return trip. He was riding a ripping flood of a tide on his way back in the western way for a finish at Gilpatrick Cove. Far Out did it again on corrected time today and took the lead in the Wednesday Series.
A gorgeous SW breeze brought a thinly veiled overcast sky to Acadia today. Starting from Bear Island racers beat to mark Q off Spurling Point on Cranberry, reached over to the north side of East Bunker ledge, beat up to Harding Ledge on Islesford, reached back to Seal Hahbah and had a nice long beat out the Western Way to the green can 'M', and returned to Bear Island with the breeze really smoking up to 20 at that point in time.
Far Out took the honors for the day followed by Sidewinder and Flirt. Season results now reflect a discard race as well. Sue and Fran managed things on Shearwater today.
Haaland Series after Race 4, 7/20/2011
Haaland Series after Race 3, 7/13/2011
Haaland Series after Race 2, 7/6/2011
The 2011 Cruising Class season opened with a dank and foggy east wind with temps barely getting to the low 50s. The breeze remained fresh for the entire beat to windward out the eastern way to East Bunker Ledge's Red Flasher. The ebbing current increased apparent wind a bit more for the racers as well. The visibility got a bit better as the fleet made their way downwind to SW Harbor. Unfortunately, the breeze faded as boats made their way around the west side of Greening Island. The course was shortened at mark P at the mouth of Somes Sound with a photo finish between Ondine and Mary Jane. Congrats to the team on Flirt for the first bullet of the 2011 season. It was a fine turnout for quite dreary and chilly conditions.
Race results with point total displayed via new application of high point, chips 3 scoring system.
