Ugh

The E-Scows got in 2 races Sunday. But the MC-Scows were yet again thwarted by a lack of wind.

We started prepping KU-1 for the Nationals. Bryon Eichorn jumped on as a 4th person on the boat. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind for race 1 so practice was a bit stunted. But for race 2 he got a taste for some medium breeze. We won race 1 with little effort. But race 2 was a short 1-lap where we got passed on the downwind by Brent Penwarden and John Anderson (sailing Bob Cole's boat). We ended up third.

After we got to shore we watched the wind slowly drop to nothing during lunch. Then an hour after we cancelled afternoon racing the wind filled in again. Frustrating.

Now the long term forecast is for the residual hurricane remnants to arrive between Sunday and Monday potentially messing up our final weekend.

Ugh.

No People, No Power, No Wind

Two weeks ago we did not sail. For E-Scows in the morning there were too few boats because of regatta travel. For MC-Scows in the afternoon, we had 4 boats. But only 2 made it to the water before the power went out at the club. With no easy trailer hitch launch available, and squirrely wind, the two of us on shore decided to throw in the towel. I had to drive to Detroit that night anyway. I got an early start.

Last Sunday we started the day well...sort of. We had two races for E-Scows but they were a bit dodgy. Race 1 quickly became a low side light air adventure. We led at the top mark, lost the lead to Bob Cole and never regained it until 30 seconds before the finish when we got ahead just enough to cross him on port by a foot or so. A couple close tacks later we had the pin end of the line laid on port above and ahed of Bob. But he threw in a nifty attack flopping to Starboard short of the line. If we were a foot or two slower he would have had a starboard advantage and we would have been in trouble. But we crossed and won. Brent Penwarden was thrid about 10 minutes behind us, and 4th and 5th place were 10 minutes behind them.

Race 2 looked to be a drifter. We started in 3-5 which went to zero on the second lag. Brent Penwarden rounded first followed by Joe Meade and us. Brent erroneously gybed away not knowing the course was far more changed than he expected. When we sailed into the last of the air behind Joe Meade we did so with the jib down letting us pick up the new air just slightly quicker than Joe. We rolled him and never looked back finishing the 1-lap short course in about an hour.

The wind never did pick up for the afternoon. So we went another week without any racing for MC-Scows.

For those of you that missed the sailing link I posted a few weeks ago before it was taken down by VIMEO, here it is from another video hosting site. Enjoy!

Irish Sailing Commentary

Only five days of sailing left this year.

No Sailing

Sunday's foreast was for 20 with storms. The morning certainly had 20+ winds. But by MC-Scow sailing time the wind had settled to 15-20 and the forecasted storms went mostly around the lake. But we still didn't sail.

Enjoy this olympic race comentary instead.
https://vimeo.com/46824253

Pleasure Sailing

I had the pleasure to sail Tuesday with William Hudson to do some training, and then some pleasure sailing on his E-Scow with some of my family. It was blowing 10-15. It was the first E-Scow driving I had done in quite awhile. God how I love those boats. Of course William's is top of the line with everything in perfect working order.

Then Wednesday I sailed the MC-Scow with my daughter for about an hour or so. Emily drove for awhile. It was just as much fun as Tuesday but for other reasons. But an MC-Scow in 5 mph is certainly NOT and E-Scow in 15.

I've changed up my plans a bit purchasing a new boat lift for the MC-Scow. At some point it will be back at the cottage and not at the club. It will certainly help the damage control. The dock dings and boat banging has taken a few nibbles out of the boat. Plus I may do some more of this odd experience of pleasure sailing. We'll see.