Another rewarding day on the water where drizzle fell and weather did major ups and downs. The wind was strong and seas were choppy in the morning. Decisions were made to hold Green 20s and Green Optis on the beach for the day. I personally doubted the wisdom of sending sixty-six other little boats into such challenges. Susie pulled off four competitive races which ended up in a foul current with little or no wind. A fair number of boats were scored Did Not Finish (DNF) because the specified time limit expired. My caution was wrong!
The first scheduled warning gun at 1100 hours was postponed until just after 1145. Some aggressive Green 420s were caught and sent home after they tried to sneak in with the "bigger kids". We ended up with a count of fifty-one Champion 420s and fifteen LASER Radials. The full LASERs chose the beach over the blustering wind and seas.
420 #5731 took the first day 1st and 2nd into a 5th, 1st, 3rd and 5th. Pretty good in a rather big fleet. #4647 also scored a 1st and 2nd in the three races Monday. They got a 5th and a 3rd before fading from the top boats in the 6th and 7th races. #4589 started with a 1st and bounced around behind the top leaders. Again, things were organized to preclude my getting even a soggy scratch list to show names with sail numbers.
In LASER Radials, #175930 dominates with six wins and a second in seven races with the prospect of more glory in the two additional races hoped for on Wednesday. After that the USA JUNIOR OLMPMIC SAILING FESTIVAL fades into history. The top scorers so far lack evidence of candidates for the 2nd and 3rd overall for the fifteen competitors.
The same race committee crew worked well with J.P. Dunn replacing Patti Page who is expected back Wednesday. Jim Ayer came aboard to do the flags in place of Mariah Dunn, daughter of J.D. and Andrea Dunn. John Rando came to add another level of "chiefs" over all of us "indians".
We all hope for better weather so that the "green team sailors" can get more racing. Green 420s need two more races to qualify for throwing out their worst score. That often yields some new surprises.
Come back after my Wednesday night blogings when I hope to have names to go with numbers.
