It was an interesting day of racing. It was warm, but not hot, and the wind was up, down, and all around as usual for Rosemary.
We started racing with 6 skippers and by the second heat I was having electrical problems with my DF95. I couldn’t find anything wrong except by the 3rd heat I had a lot of water in my boat, which I figured was causing my problem. On closer inspection I found a small crack in my aging hull. Looks like a new hull might be in my future, but where do I find one?
As I was retiring my boat, John Whalen and Armand Paradis showed up a little late after having to find their way through heavy traffic. So now, as everybody else sailed, I kept score.
The story of the day was the competition between David Fine and John Whalen, both of whom are excellent sailors. David was sailing in his usual excellent form, keeping his DF95 in front of the fleet. John had already missed two races but started sailing with a vengeance. With 12 heats there would be two throw-outs, so if he stayed out of trouble and sailed fast, he might be able to move into the lead.
David and John traded first and second place finishes throughout the racing. Then, David got stuck in a crowd in race 10 and finished with 4th place. This gave John the chance he needed. It all came down to heat 12.
In the 12th heat John and David were in the lead (again). John was ahead of David as they sailed towards the last windward mark, before turning to the finish. Everybody knew the wind could be fickle, the racing was going to be close, and we wouldn’t know the winner until someone crossed the finish line..…..that was right up until John sailed just a little too close to one of the starting pins and the wind heeled his boat over just enough for his keel to snag the anchor rope! The rest is now history.
David Fine was first overall in the DF95 fleet and Herb Dreher was first in the S1M fleet.
Cliff Martin,
Commodore
