Race time Saturday came with light winds and light rain. At Deep Creek, sailboat races are held in rain, as long as there isn’t any lightning. Friends often ask if it’s fun to race in the rain; the answer, “if you’re winning, yes, if you’re losing, not as much.” On the plus side, rainy weather cuts down on motorboat traffic, and sailing in light wind is much easier with fewer motor-boat wakes. Race-committee Bob Vance and Al Riebel had set a course for a west wind, but as gathered in the racing area the winds moved more to the south. The race committee postponed to reset the course. During the postponement light rains changed to a torrential downpour, and visibility started to become a concern. In about twenty minutes, most of the rain had cleared off. The start was now set between Turkey Neck and Holy Cross points, with the windward mark set to the south past Turkey Neck Yacht Club. We would sail on lap on a windward-leeward course.
I drove for the first race, with my wife Stephanie crewing for me. I chose a fairly risky “dip” approach for the start. In a “dip” you approach the starting line from the course side, and try to find a hole to “dip” into. The advantage to the “dip” is that you approach the line with speed. The disadvantage is that boats below the line have the right of way, and can often block holes in the line, leaving you on the course side of the line at the start. You must then find a way back to the line through the racing fleet, and start behind the other racers. As I approached the line to windward, Bruce Spinnenwebber in 4350 came up to the line, and for a few moments held me above the line. With my downwind sailing angle, I was able to gain speed, pass Bruce’s bow, and dive below the starting line with about ten seconds to spare. I turned back up wind, and hit the line with speed and momentum for a solid start with clear air. Unfortunately, I sailed right up behind ace sailor Joanie Palmer. When sailing up wind, directly behind another boat is a bad place to be because the boat ahead causes swirls and eddies in the wind. Those disturbances hurt your speed and pointing ability, so we tacked away to get clear air. We reached the windward mark in the middle of the pack, and turned downwind. The downwind leg started as a fairly close reach, which is a fast point of sail for Steph and I. Steph kept the spinnaker full while I worked the boat to windward of most of the fleet, setting us up as the inside boat for the leeward mark rounding. If boats are overlapped and on the same tack on a mark rounding, the inside boat has the right of way, so getting inside position on the downwind leg can often produce a large advantage. I reach the mark just behind Ray Gauthier, but with inside overlap, so Ray had to give way to us at the mark rounding. Once around the mark, we tacked to starboard, and sailed toward the finish. Ray reads the wind better than I do, and held port tack for a hundred yards or so. As we tacked upwind to the finish, Ray tacked once more to starboard with a slightly different wind direction than we had, and sailed straight to the finish. Ray finished several boat lengths ahead of us. We finished somewhere around fifth place. I thought that was one of our better races this season, but my lovely wife was soon to teach me a few things about sailing.
For the second race we had more wind, still from the south and less drizzle. This time Steph took the tiller, and I took the front seat as crew. The race committee kept the same course layout, but with higher wind speed posted a two lap windward leeward course. As the clock ticked down on the starting gun, Steph approached the start conservatively from behind the committee boat, and to leeward of Gauthier. In a rare error, Gauthier did not account for our approach, and had no room to pass between our boat and the race committee boat. Ray was forced to circle around, and start slightly late. With no boats starting to our starboard side, Steph was clear to tack to the right side of the course, and sail in clear air. We reached the windward mark near the front of the fleet, pulled up our spinnaker, and headed downwind. Again we sailed a reaching course to the leeward mark, and again we made ground on many of our competitors. We rounded the leeward mark to start the second lap, and turned back up wind. We lost ground on the second upwind leg, and then turned back down to our reaching position. I suggested that we try to repeat our performance from the first race, and try to gain windward position on our competitors. Steph declined, as Bruce Spinnenwebber was ahead and to windward. Steph felt that Bruce would contest an attempt to gain a windward position, possibly carrying both boats so far to windward that other competitors would pass us on a straighter line to the leeward mark. The wind shifted to a position more behind us, but we maintained our speed. We separated from Sally Ericson behind us, and held our position against Bruce Spinnenwebber. Lee Coraor was slightly behind us and to windward. As the wind shifted Lee would alternately threaten to pass us, and then lose ground again. We reached the leeward mark with Bruce Spinnenwebber overlapped inside, and we had to stay clear of him at the mark. As Gauthier had done in the first race, Bruce held port tack at the rounding, while we tacked quickly to starboard. This time we had better luck. The wind had shifted so that we could now reach the finish on one tack from the mark. We were now in a drag race to the finish with Bruce, with us sailing a shorter line. Bruce sails fast, but we do too. We were able to hold off Bruce, and finish third behind Joanie Palmer and Corson. That was our best finish of the season so far. I was impressed, but Steph had would have even more in store for Sunday’s races.
As race time approached on Sunday winds were high and very shifty from the west, with gusts reported above twenty knots. This made for Deep Creek Sailing at its most challenging, with hard and sudden shifts that can overpower a boat one second, leave you hiking against no pressure the next, and tack your boat without you ever moving the tiller. Race Committee Harry Carpenter, Dan Muss, and Bill Dunham set a very long windward-leeward course, twice around. Again Steph took the driver’s seat, and I took the crew position. About fifteen minutes before the start we were again soaked by sudden heavy rains. By start time the rain cleared off, and the heavy winds subsided to something in the range of eight to ten knots. We attempted a somewhat risky port-tack pin-end start. This would leave us crossing the fleet without right of way, but Steph was committed to sailing the right side of the course, even if we had to duck every other boat in the fleet to get there. A few seconds prior to the start Corson reached in from the port end, tacked to starboard and pushed several boats attempting a pin end start over the line early. This created a small hole for us, and helped our start. We still had to duck several boats on the first tack, but we gained the clear air we wanted on the right side. We worked our way up the right side, while much of the fleet sailed towards Turkey Neck point on the left, hoping to capitalize on a lift that often develops near that point in a west wind. That lift failed to materialize. Instead we found a lift in the middle of the “slot” that carried us on a long tack to round the windward mark in first place, with John Skoog and Joan and Lee Caroar chasing us. We started the downwind leg on a reach, and set off for the leeward mark with good speed. As we approached the mark the wind shifted behind us, and we jibed to keep a good course to the mark. We rounded the leeward mark alone, still in first, and turned back up wind. Steph kept a safe position to the middle on the second upwind leg and rounded the windward mark still in first. We turned downwind again, and stayed to the middle of the lake in a dead downwind position. John Skoog stayed close to the Turkeyneck shore, sailing a less direct course, but with better boat speed. John reached the leeward mark just ahead of us, and turned toward the finish. The race committee had set the finish line a short way above the leeward mark, in a position where it could be reached in one port-tack leg. It appeared that we had no chance to catch John. Just before the finish, however, John inexplicably tacked away from the finish line, and passed the committee boat on the wrong side. We crossed the finish line and logged our first win of the season. We later learned that Skoog had been one of the boats forced over the line early at the start, and had not re-crossed the line. Had John finished, he would have been disqualified. To avoid any confusion on that score, John took the sportsman-like course and acknowledged that his race was not valid by not crossing the line.
