Fun racers regatta
As a sort of season-ending event for the “Fun Racers”, a longer distance race was held on Aug. 14, in which eleven boats from the Basin took part. HYC’s Fleet Captain, Shawn Lise generated a “staggered start” timing sequence in lieu of a more formal phrf handicap rating system. Using data collected from various past race events, some magic pixie dust and a dash of wolfsbane, (I think the Hogwarts Sorting Hat was consulted as well) each boat was assigned a specific start time – the slower the boat, the earlier the start time.
The first boat to make the top of the list was Brian Canham’s CS 27, Perpetuity (sorry, Brian!) with a start time at 10:45AM. And, so…what was Wee Beastie III’s start time? Wait for it…12:25PM! Giving us about a one-and-a-half hour delay on a race that was estimated to take about three hours to complete. The cool thing about this kind of setup, though, is that everyone knows who is winning despite the variations of performance across the fleet. The first boat is, well,...first. And so on. And the whole race is just one big chase. It’s great! (though I much prefer to be the chaser than the chasee…
The course basically saw us all sail from a mark off the Basin, over to one of ABYC’s marks and back, for a round trip of about 12 nautical miles. The weather was just gorgeous – sunny, with a sparkling lake and winds around 8-10kn. On Wee Beastie III there was myself and Jim plus special guests, Steve and Maggie LeFevre. It was great to have them along and share some fun sailing stories and, more importantly, provide Steve with a front (well more like back) row seat from which to take photos.
So who won the race? Hmmm….If Shawn, the guy who came up with the magical start sequence formula, is reading this, he knows where this is going….Malgre Tout! Coincidence?...Hmmmm, indeed! Next was Naughty, a Tanzer 29 out of BPYC, followed in third place by our own Beausejour and Merlwynd in fourth. And what about our seasoned veteran racers? Wee Beastie III, Double Vision and Midnight Express finished in a humbling 8th, 9th and 10th place, respectively. And who nailed the 11th spot? Perpetuity!! (again, sorry, Brian!). Ah, but wait! Here’s the thing: Perpetuity was actually 31 minutes (yes – minutes, not seconds) late for her start. And, with a finish time just 24 minutes behind Malgre Tout, this would mean that Perpetuity was actually first had they made their start on time. Aha, so there (you’re welcome, Brian).
In all, it was a great day with fun racing and after-race social. A huge thanks should go out to Shawn Lise for putting it all together and, of course, for our dedicated race committee. And, again, I want to thank Steve Lefevre for providing us with an amazing set of photos.
