Mackenzie Financial
Nine 8 Metres sailed in this year’s regatta. Great series under a variety of winds starting from 5 knots in the first day at first and up to 25+ knots by the end of the last race. It was a regatta that saw a boat, and not Iskareen this time, sail a near perfect series. Congratulations to Thisbe! It saw two collisions, the first one between Bangalore and Norseman. And the second one between Venture and Severn. It was a series where Iskareen and Venture each only got one bullet. It was a series where Severn & others beat Iskareen twice and Venture three times. It was series where Bart and not Terry McLaughlin steering got a bullet after leading the entire race. Close racing throughout the series including the starts, laylines, mark roundings, and finishes. Just a great series. (And the evening parties were good fun too. Thanks Derek for the Clamato and Andrea for the vodka which complimented the rum blender drinks nicely).
We had our moments throughout the series with some great sail handling and trim between the starts and the finishes. The crew work was good throughout, with some superb maneuvers around the marks, though Norseman didn’t seem to think so at one of the leeward mark roundings the first day which was also accompanied by a protest which was later mediated by Terry Mclaughin so the protest was avoided. In every race where we found ourselves in deficient position due to windshifts or dirty air we battled back to improve our position. And when the collision with Venture occurred, we were heading for one our best starts of the season. Venture in deciding to try to barge between the committee boat and Severn, they hit us several times down our starboard side, with her last nudge pushing us over the line early and we had to return and restart. We never did recover though from last spot we finished 6th in that race. On the last race of the final day, we were again sitting fourth behind Bangalore, Venture and Iskareen, but then the front moved in changing the direction by 30 degrees. Our crew spotted it but not before Bangalore recovered, and Ranja and Thisbe who were behind us saw it sooner. We again settled with another fourth in the series. Thisbe wins the Sodus Bay Cup and the Globe & Mail Trophy.
A now for a weekend off, with a few corporate cruises between now and the next series, which is the EYC weekend. Details to follow of course. See you then.
Regards,
Ced
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