WNR - Series I - Race 6

Competitors: 550, 484, 247, 152 (Andante), 244
Crew: Brian, Nick, Glen, Tim

The wind was quite variable last night. As we watched the start, it didn't look to good: half the Etchell class started--close hauled--at the pin; the other half started--dead downwind with spinnakers up--at the boat. And so the night proceeded.

We were pushed over early by a bit of current and a bit of wind, near the boat end, and after a quick jaunt back over the line, we cleared and popped the chute heading for the first mark. We mixed it up with L'Orange from the Cal 25 class (arrrgh), but caught, then lost Towney by a couple boat lengths to the first mark.

The closer we got to that mark, we realized that the wind had quit at the mark. There were probably 30 boats all jammed in around the mark. Using a little momentum, and small breath of air, we took the advice of, I think it was Nick, or was it Brian? and went well wide of the bunch. It looked insane as 550 kept tight to the mark and we went about 100 yards wide of it. While the wind died, it shifted about 180 degrees. We found a hole in the mess of boats and keeping the spinnaker up, we made it through a hole. When the wind picked back up, Glen was flying the chute and passing J/105s and MORC boats!! Not the norm for an Alberg.

We took a sizeable lead at this point as Towney and the rest were tangled up in the rounding with the dozens of other boats. We jibed, came around the pin and carried the spinnaker all the way past the green can.

Unfortunately the wind completely died while we were in front of SSA. We sat there, within site of the finish, and watch the last 30 minutes of the time limit expire. We were still in first, but no gun was to be had last night.

Great work everyone! Especially Glen with some great spinnaker work. Scott, it was really sad not to have you along for this race.

BTW: I'm very happy with our downwind speed.

And CONGRATULATIONS! As you can see below, we took first for the first WNR Series this year! Great work everyone. It was a blast.

Let's see if we can show similar speed and skill on our way to St. Michael's this weekend.

--Tim

Division: Alberg 30 (6 boats)

Pos	Sail	Boat	Skipper	1	2	3	4	5	Total Points	Pos
1	244	LinGin	Nurco, Virginia	3/DNC	1	[4/OCS]	2	1	7.00	1
2	247	Argo	Williams, T.C.	[2]	2	2	1	2	7.00	2
3	550	Skybird	Liddick, Roberta	3/DNC	3	1	[4/DNC]	3	10.00	3
4	484	Second-2-Nun	Bluntschli, Ralph	1	4	4/DNC	4/DNC	[5]	13.00	4
5	152	Andante	Maas, Louis	3/DNC	[5/DNC]	4/DNC	3	4	14.00	5
6	79	A30	Binder, Paula	3/DNC	5/DNC	4/DNC	4/DNC	[6/DNC]	16.00	6