Today, seven skippers showed up to race.  Five brought DF95’s, one brough a S1M, and one brought a US1M.  

The forecast was for a clear, cool Fall day with some gusty breezes, and the day did not disappoint.  Some of us were in Nashua, NH the day before trying to sail EC-12’s in extremely light conditions, so we were happy to see the winds.  

That said, none of us really had the right sails to match the wind conditions.  Being hearty men of the (sea in our minds), we persevered with what we had.  The result was a somewhat high attrition rate.  We had a broken jib swivel, a broken rudder servo, and at least one skipper had a bout of good sense and dropped out before something broke.  The remaining three boats were not going to admit defeat or surrender to conditions.

It is worth mentioning that the high winds didn’t necessarily sweep uniformly across the pond.  I remember at least one race in which the fleet was tacking towards the windward mark when one skipper who was slightly above and behind the fleet, caught the edge of a gust that no one else had and literally screamed past everyone to reach the mark first.  I’m sure we were all very happy about his good fortune. (No! It wasn’t me!)

Such was the day.

I should also mention that the US1M skipper was remodeling his house and could not get to his S1M.  He raced with us but was not scored so he isn’t in the results.  However, as expected he did well, and we are glad he came to sail with us.

Cliff Martin,

Commodore