Yet another great day for sailing in Tennessee! The winds that blew in from the passing front a few days ago hung around for awhile and provided us with some good air for our 7th Annual Great River Drop Regatta. It was a beautiful early fall day and we were all eager to get out there and have some fun.

Returning to the exact spot of where Shackleton history was made, we welcome back Anthony West. As the old saying goes, once a Sale Creeker, always a Sale Creeker - or is it Sale Creekian? No, Creeker sounds better (I guess) and besides, the MS Front Page spell checker somehow approves it. Anthony was  not in the J 24 mind you, but in the old faithful, race proven Alberg 24 USS Georgia. Alas, the homecoming was short lived, for early in the contest a spreader popped out of its base - actually it kind of broke out. Although a vintage boat is pretty cool, spreaders with welds from the same era as the boat are not. But fear not, quality replacements are on order and the USS Georgia should be back competing soon.

We would also like to welcome a new sailor to the bunch. Craig Lenfestey, who has just moved to the area from Pensacola, sailed with his son-in-law, Mike, and did a great job on board Victory, a very nice Hunter 28.5. Craig is already becoming acclimated to sailing in our somewhat indecisive wind conditions around here. And it is always  nice to see another pretty spinnaker on the course. Great job guys! We look forward to seeing Victory out on the water.

Along with my better half, Kat, I returned in the San Juan 24 Hasta La Vista. However, sailing the "ringer boat" didn't do me much good. It was too pretty of a day to sail so ugly, but nevertheless, that's what I did. Let's see...a poor start, not reading the shifts well, having to do a penalty turn for trying to be the stand on vessel while on a port tack (sorry, Craig!), and having to rudely interrupt the leisurely downwind leg to go back to a buoy that I missed all constitutes ugliness....but yet it was still fun! And yes, I sung the "I'm Sorry" song to exonerate myself for the aforementioned infraction. Oh, and did one of those penalty turn things to make it all nice and official like.

Mike Rice was also pumped up about today's race. His J 24 is sporting new spreader bases and had a full crew consisting of Clarence, Mary, and Luke Myers. And when I say full crew, I mean full crew! As we can see in the picture, NO ONE is exempt from crew duties. All I want to know is, where can I get a PFD with the Sesame Street characters on it? Mike was on his game today as he and crew had an excellent start and pulled away from  the fleet fast and early, hitting every tack with the precision of an America's Cup boat. Rounding the two upstream marks and then heading downwind with spinnaker flying majestically, it was a given that Just Ducky was going to win big...

Unfortunately, there was some confusion as to which two upstream marks were to be rounded. Perhaps influenced by another fleet member's poor memory of just how many green buoys we had to pass before reaching the upstream mark, Just Ducky opted to abbreviate the course a little. Rule #1 - don't listen to any one else out there, especially those like myself who have a poor buoy passing to buoy rounding properly ratio. I think it safe to say, barring anything else unforeseen, Mike would have won this race hands down.

It was all business aboard Dutchess as Andre had some good crew. Michael Moore (no, not the Michael Moore) rode in with Tim Chambers (yes, the Tim Chambers). Michael, from what our sources tell us, has a pretty extensive sailing background, including competing in the Finn Olympic trials. Teamed up with Andre, and with Just Ducky out of contention, it appeared that Andre was headed towards victory. Having an excellent start from the beginning, sailing a fine course, playing the wind shifts, setting a good spinnaker, and just basically doing everything right, it was now a given that Dutchess was going to win big...

Unfortunately, there was some confusion as to which DOWNSTREAM mark was do be rounded. It appeared that Dutchess also wanted to shorten the course a little. And it was such a lovely day - don't know why everyone was in a hurry. However, Andre did manage to go back, unwind himself around the buoy, and then head to the proper one, and then finish the race properly. But as you know, time is a precious commodity in sailboat racing and detrimental when lost.

Sailing quietly under the radar throughout the race, Warren Sickler on I Soar also sailed solid. He and crew mate, Tim (or first mate, swab, cabin boy, or whatever title Warren assigns him), did what it takes to win a race - they made the fewest mistakes. As Tim once said, successful racing is simply the elimination of errors. Congratulations to Warren on another fine job.

So, with that, we wrap up another River Drop. Our summer pool waters are slowly diminishing but remember, sailing season never ends for Sale Creekers, in fact it is now just getting cranked up.

See you on the water!

Race Report written by Eric Almlie. ©Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.

Photos by Kat Almlie and Clarence Myers