Spring Race #1: Saturday, May 17th; 10:00 AM Start

Congratulations to Marty Minot and the crew of Bella for winning the opening day race!  Wind was from the WSW between 12 and 15 with gusts up to 20 knots. Absolutely stunning race conditions! The race committee set a course using the Wednesday Night Racing marks of ADAF, or GZGF using the HISF marks. The race started promptly at 10 am with Trim (one of the clubs new Harbor 20s), sail by Tim Paris, first across the line followed close by the Melges, unPhaseD. Also on the course was Cordilia, LaC, Bella, Echo Lima, and a Star boat. The first two legs of the course were a close reach with all boats in a drag race to the crash mark at Oak Creek. UnPhaseD held the lead for most of the legs but was taken over by LaC about 2/3s of the way to the crash mark. It remained a tight race to the crash mark with all boats hoping to hoist their kites after rounding the mark. However, during the race winds shifted more to WNW by the time the fleet had made it to the turning mark, resulting in a beam reach back down the Miles River. The drag race continued and unPhaseD was able to retake and hold the lead from LaC, as the rest of the fleet followed in hot pursuit. The fate of the leading boats was not to be as there was a misunderstanding about the course that result in unPhaseD and LaC not honoring the last mark of the course and were therefore disqualified from the race. Bella was the first boat across the line that sailed the entire course and took home the trophy, Cordelia was second, the Star took third, and Trim took 4^th. Congratulation to all the sailors! It was an amazing day on the water, a great turnout with 7 boats, and a fun race to sail despite confusion about the marks. A huge thanks to Marshal Patterson and his race committee for another excellent job as race committee.