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Calm waters and dark skies in Little Traverse Bay |
There are gremlins that live in the water between Harbor
Springs and Petosky, Michigan. They have our name, and they enjoy the visit.
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Prep Work |
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Ready for the start! |
The Tour is a 9-15 leg course, up, down, and across the bay.
We have done this race many times, and it always serves up something
interesting.
As usual, it was a dead calm that we motored out into, and
that gave us a break to jump in the lake (the water temperature was higher than
the air temp,) relax, scrub the underside.
The “Harbor Springs Virgins” thought that we were joking
when we said “Oh, it is calm now, but it could easily be 20+kts of wind in the
next 15 minutes; we need to watch the water to see it happen.”
So, then it happened….
We got the wind we wanted, that is for sure!
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Dang fast boat |

We would fight the rest of the 18 miles of the race, but
there was just no way to make up that lost time. We had a great race, sailed
well, managed to get sails up and down without
a hitch…. But we never made up that lost ground, and you can see the
results in the finishes; the 2nd line starts all have markedly
different times than the front line starters. Bummer.
That was ok, we had some partying to do Saturday night, and
then a set of W/L races on Sunday to look forward to.
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The Sleds are off! |
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More pressure inshore! |
Race #1 went well, we just picked the wrong side of the
course. The winds looked like they were favoring the center of the bay, and
they were by direction, but the boats
that ran to the southern end of the bay had a good 8 kts more breeze. You can
cover a lot of ground with an
addition 8 kts!.
Race #2 was the best of the bunch, and now that we knew the
south shore was favored, we hit it hard. The J35 Touch of Grey tried to push us over at the start, but we managed to
duck them properly and hit the start well. We executed our tacks and jibes, and
managed to come in 4th, which would be our best finish of the
regatta.
Race #3 started with great excitement, as we got into a
battle at the starting line with Touch of
Grey (again!) but this time when we got our bow under their transom, we
pushed them up and over the starting line, and kept our bow clear so they had
to return and re-start. They showed their experience by catching us on the
upwind leg (they are a faster upwind boat than we are, in general, but downwind
they don’t stand a chance,) but we consistently pulled away.
Approaching the finish of Race #3, we had a tight group of boats, including a Henderson 30, an FT-10, and some other fast boats, all of whom owe us time, but we were flying along in Maskwa’s favorite air… 20+ kts of wind, following seas, and a happy skipper. Regularly over 9.5 kts downwind, now we were hitting the 10s, and managed to leap across the finish line surfing down a wave with 11 kts of boat speed. It was a great rush, we all had big smiles on our faces.
We didn’t end up on the podium for this race, but unlike
many other years, we came away happy and ready for more. Everyone happy,
everyone uninjured, nothing broken, and a good experience all around.
Now we take a few weeks off, and come back for the Michigan
City PHRFection Regatta.
Cheers!
Scott
1 comment:
Great stuff, thanks for posting scott
Dave g-Denver
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