Posting a write up on our annual Free For All Regatta is quite uncommon - in fact, this will be the first one ever, albeit a little on the short side The idea behind this event is simply to have a race for fun - no trophies, no entry fees, no results posted - let's just get out there and sail and have a fun time. We don't even poke fun at anyone by mentioning something outrageously embarrassing that might have happened on the course, exploiting it, and  plastering it all over cyber space. Well, since not doing any of that REALLY takes the fun out of it, here is a short little summary of the events that took place over the weekend of March 15-16 and some random photos.

First off, it was not a weekend event. The race was initially scheduled for Saturday, the 15th. But the grim forecast and the actual conditions that day lead to a postponement until Sunday. There was a huge sigh of relief by the few that were at the skipper's meeting Saturday once that decision was reached. And about that exact time, the monsoon began and lasted through a significant portion of the day.

Sunday turned out to be a nice day - an ideal one for a pursuit start. I was asked why certain days are better for pursuit starts than others - after all, the handicaps are the same, they are just applied at the start of the race instead of at the end. But the thing is, on a light air day or even a drifter (yes, a rarity in these parts), chances are that the slower boats to start the race often get passed by the fastest boats not even a quarter of the way through the course. Even though the outcome is the same in the end, it is just more demoralizing when you KNOW you have already lost in the first 20 minutes. In a regular start, even if you are hours behind, there is ALWAYS that sense of hope, "well maybe my handicap will allow me to correct out somehow! Don't I get an hour-and-a-half per mile allowance on those J Boats?"

Today I was strictly playing the roll of race committee. I really had no intentions of setting an anchor but the wind was up and blowing me all over the starting area so dropping the hook made things much easier. Alexa was the first boat to start, followed by Mike Edge's Ranger 23 (formerly known as I Soar - not sure if he intends to keep the name). The race course had a short leg across the lake to Grasshopper Creek, then an even shorter downwind run down to the next lowest green can. Well I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to where everyone was headed but by the time I was about to sound the horn to start Maniac I looked across the river and saw the spinnaker flying on True Blue. I was immediately impressed by the ambition that Shawn and crew were showing - pretty serious to set the chute in a run that was going to be less than 1/2 mile! Then I looked further downriver and saw that all the front runners who had started earlier were heading much further downriver than expected - to the next green can downstream from the one they were supposed to round.  Well, True Blue continued the follow-the-leader pattern and all Maniac would have to do would be to round the proper buoy and they would be in the lead with only a small portion of the course sailed and skate to victory. Yeah, I know - what else is new?

But not so fast - Maniac also followed suit and decided to ignore the proper buoy! The race was still on...or was it? Since every boat added a certain amount of mileage to the course, the precalculated start times were now all fouled up. Oh, sure I could have, as the almighty head of today's race committee, decided to figure the excess mileage sailed, and come up with new handicaps and applied those to everyone's finish time, divide by πr², carry the 2,...you know what? Forget that! It was much easier, and I dare say, MUCH more fun scoring EVERYONE a DSQ! MWHAHAHAHA! I know that sounds like a mean thing to do,  but in all seriousness, it is really just a fun race, anyway. There was no need to declare a winner - it was just a great day to go out sailing and enjoy the lake, the lake, the pretty day, and everyone's company! So a huge thank you to everyone who came out this fine day. See you next time!