April 24-25, 2007

The weather was beautiful and conditions were ideal...the only problem was that we had to wait an additional week for these conditions to hold our annual event River Raising Regatta. The weekend of the 17th and 18th, which was the original targeted weekend, brought us absolutely ZERO wind and rainy conditions on Saturday, and a Sunday that had a high temp in the low 40s with blustery northerly winds 20-30. Don't those in charge of the weather know THE SHACKLETON SERIES IS OVER? Enough, already! After paying our dues each winter, year after year, sailing in adverse conditions is now done purely at our discretion...well, at least for now - until next year's Shackleton rolls around. And for the record, a few of us STILL went out on that bleak Saturday and Sunday because...well, that's what us sailors do.

On the schedule for this year's River Raising were 3 races. The plan was to have 2 on Saturday and one on Sunday. However the light air present Saturday allowed for only one encounter and Sunday's first race had a short delay waiting for the wind to wake up. Okay, so maybe conditions weren't TOTALLY ideal but at least it was shorts weather and not anything that required scarves and gloves.

Saturday's race would be a good one with some close results. First, we had some new blood...er, I mean, new participants on the race course. We welcome Leonard Newcomb sailing a Tanzer 22 and Glen Segrest sailing a early model Catalina 27. Uh, oh. Looks like there might be some direct head to head competition for Mike Miller's Tanzer Asylum and my own Comfortably Numb.  But that would be another day, since neither Mike or myself would be sailing on this fine day.

If you follow Sale Creek racing on a regular basis then it won't exactly be earth shattering news that Maniac would claim victory in the first race. Another fine job by the J 29 crew. For those who are unaware, Chuck's O'Day 222 Beago had a new look for the race, a sweet looking Awlgrip Toredor Red  paint job. Forget learning all that sail trim stuff and race course tactics. If you want to make your boat faster, paint it red! Chuck and crew did a great job and finished close enough to Andre on Dutchess that the PHRF numbers would have to be plugged in upon return from the race course. Okay, maybe JUST painting your boat red isn't quite enough (matching uniforms would have helped immensely) because Dutchess got the edge by 6 seconds. Congratulations to both and everyone else for sailing a great race. The plan to have only one race today turned out to be a good call as the wind ducked out a tad early and would not return.

RACE 1 RESULTS

On Sunday, as previously mentioned, we would have a slight delay in waiting for the wind to arrive. Sunday's first race (Race 2) would be a pursuit start, the idea being that we all finish together and start Race 3 without any delay whatsoever. Well, our plans are always well intended and look great on paper.

Sunday's roll call had many different faces. Absent were Beago, the Tanzer 22, Mike Rice's J24, and Glen's Catalina 27, although they came out later to enjoy the day. But there were a few to take their place including David Barrow in an O'Day 22 sailing in his first race ever, Lester Burks in the S2 30C Kaos Surrendered, James and Kristen Drozdek on  their S2 27, and yours truly along with my better half, Kat on board Comfortably Numb.

The crew on Maniac directed the staggered start of Race 2. This is the price they pay for having the fastest boat in the fleet. Since they would be the last ones to start the race it is only fair that they be the ones that sound the signal horn every time a boat is to start. I mean, it would be kind of hard for me to do it well into the course, miles away from the starting line by the time the last boat needs a horn blast. Well, maybe not miles away, but at least a good portion into the course. Okay, when it was all said and done today, by the time Numb had crossed the start line everyone else had already started! I actually COULD have handled the horn sequence because we were about 15 minutes tardy due to some mishaps with the spinnaker. The setting of the chute certainly wasn't textbook but by the time we did get things under control, we made a valiant comeback during the downwind leg, which means we finally obtained a visual contact with the remaining boats in the fleet as they turned upwind.

During the upwind leg we learned all kinds of things. We saw how  fast an S2 27 can sail upwind and James as Kristen did an excellent job sailing their recently acquired boat. We learned that the shoals that seemed to part and create a safe passage for A Shot in the Dark in Shackleton Race 3  last year had filled back up. We probably had about 4 more feet of depth in the lake than we did last December but it is not quite up to summer pool and Mark and crew found the bottom of the lake. The grounding would be costly as they were unable to free themselves without assistance from the always reliable Atomic 4.

We also learned various ways to stow a spinnaker after a takedown. The one Maniac flew would return to it's bag tied off at the bow pulpit, which is quite standard. The rest of us utilized a snuffer with our spinnakers. On Kaos Surrendered, Lester and Brian set theirs down in the cabin, seemingly out of harm's way. On Dutchess and Comfortably Numb they were coiled up nicely on the foredecks of our respective boats. Somehow, while Andre's remained in place on his deck, ours on Numb attempted to bail out during our second tack,  half of it ending up in the water. Ugh! Meanwhile on Lester's boat, it was discovered that somehow, someway, a bottle of bleach with a slightly loose cap had spilled onto his spinnaker, which explains the reason for the rinse cycle between today's races. It really did look nice and bright for the last race, though.

Oh, yes the actual race. Again, Tim, Lynn, and crew would claim victory on the J 29. Andre would finish 2nd again (notice a pattern emerging here?), while James and Kristen placed 3rd in the S2 27. Although they have yet to name this boat for themselves, it does have Carol Lynn on the transom. Since they say changing boat names is bad luck, they may wish to stick with this one as well as they are sailing. I renamed the Catalina 27 and look what happened - I have yet to win a race in Numb - not even close! The red paint and uniforms are on order, however. And a good job by David Barrow in his O'Day 22 who is really just learning to sail but getting lots of practice in. We are sure you will hear his name come up next Shackleton Series. Results for Race 2 are below - no times given since we don't bother to take them in a pursuit race. That's too much like work.

RACE 2 RESULTS

In the rubber match of this year's regatta, we found yet one more way to make a boat faster, and that is to put wing like appendages on the stern of your boat. These seen here on A Shot in the Dark give the Ericson a rather sporty look, which is their most important function. Secondly, they double as dinghy davits.

A Shot in the Dark was off to an excellent start in Race 3. Mark and crew basically did the best job of avoiding the congestion at the starting line, which was packed to say the least. The line worked okay for the pursuit start in Race 2 but had an extremely favored end and not enough room for 7 boats in Race 3. And mark this down as one of those rare moments when we were all at the start together! Throw in a wind shift and things get interesting real fast.

The wind for this race actually strengthened a little. Although the intentions were there, we kept the spinnaker stowed on Numb and noticed that Andre did the same on Dutchess. In contrast, we heard a little commotion on Maniac and then, poof! Just like magic, their chute was up and the J boat soared away. And the chute on Kaos Surrendered was drying out rather nicely and gleaming in the spring sunshine.

Race 3 would turn out to be another fun one and we watched Manaic and Dutchess cruise to first and second places respectively, again. A great job by both as always. And since both boats were  perfectly consistent over the weekend, they would score the same overall in the regatta. A Shot in the Dark would pick up 3rd place in the last race and this finish would also would give Mark and crew the tie breaker over Carol Lynn to take 3rd in the regatta. (More on the low point scoring system and tie breakers at the bottom of this page. Disclaimer: some of the material is copied verbatim from the Racing Rules of Sailing, which in my humble opinion are somewhat dry. So if you find yourself nodding off while reading, I am not responsible.) Anyway, congratulations to all our top finishers and to everyone who sailed - a fine job done! We would like to thank everyone for their participation. It is always a blast getting out there sailing with the group we have here, familiar faces and the new ones!

RACE 3 RESULTS

  OVERALL REGATTA RESULTS

In a Low Point Scoring System, a boat simply gets the number of points for the position it finishes in. 1st Place gets 1 point, 2nd place gets 2 points, 3rd gets 3 points and so on. A boat that did not start, did not finish, or was disqualified shall be scored points for the finishing place 1 more than the number of boats entered in the series. We had 11 boats entered in this year's regatta, therefore a DNF (did not finish), DNC (did not come to the starting line), or DSQ (disqualified) would score 12 points in this regatta.

For series ties between 2 or more boats, each boat's race scores shall be listed in order of best to worst, and at the first point(s) where there is a difference the tie shall be broken in favor of the boat(s) with the best score(s). No excluded scores shall be used.

If a time remains between 2 boats, it shall be broken in favor of the of the boat that scored better than the other boat in more races. If more than 2 boats are tied, they shall be ranked in order of the number of times each boat scored better than another of the tied boats. No race for which a tied boat's score has been excluded shall be used.

If a tie still remains between 2 or more boats, they shall be ranked in order of their scores in the last race. (This was the tiebreaker used in this series).

Race report written by Eric Almlie. Photos by Kat Almlie.