[Leica] Woods Hole Race

[r.s.taylor at comcast.net (Richard S. Taylor)]

Normally I'm on one of these boats but I had to sit this race out on 
the Race Committee boat yesterday.  The race was sailed in Vineyard 
Sound on the south side of Cape Cod with the start and finish in 
Woods Hole Harbor.  Wind was SW at 10-20 knots.

About 15 seconds after the gun, the fleet sailed for the first mark:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/SAILING/L1020372_web

The turnout for this race was low.  More typically, we would have 12 
- 14 boats on the starting line.

The weather-most (right hand) boat in this shot is carrying a reef in 
its main, something we're allowing for the first time this year.  The 
reef allows the boat to be sailed flatter in high winds which should 
theoretically be faster, but only repeated trials will show if that 
is true in this fleet over the long run.  In any case, the trial 
proved to be inconclusive because the skipper had to shake the reef 
out at the end of the first weather leg.  The wind had dropped 
significantly by the time they got to the weather mark.

Passing the first mark the eventual winner had all ready pulled out a 
nice lead:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/SAILING/L1020374_web

Woods Hole Passage is one of the busiest and most dangerous channels 
in New England.  Although it wasn't a factor in this race, it's not 
at all unusual for boats like this one on their way to or from the 
Passage to power through the racing fleet making life "interesting" 
for the racing skippers:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/SAILING/L1020378

Although hitting a wave like this is "not fast," the gal sailing this 
boat, one of the best skippers in the fleet, finished a solid 
half-mile ahead of the second place boat by keeping her boat speed up 
on average and playing the currents perfectly.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/SAILING/L1020392_web


Enjoy.

Comments welcome as always.

-- 
Regards,

Dick