AUGUST 30 AND 21, 2011

The prediction was for light winds this past weekend, but it was better. We managed five races on Saturday and six on Sunday. Sam report ten to the newspaper, but you can’t always trust old guys to be able to count well. Eight sailors each day and nine altogether. Jerry Beck came on Saturday and Caroline Chapin on Sunday.
Alejandro Illera 2-2-2-2-2+1-1-4-2-1-2 =21
Rob Krentel 1-3-3-3-4+3-2-3-3-3-3 =31
Dave Chapin ns-1-1-1-1+ns-ns-1-1-2-1=32
Sam Chapin 4-4-4-8-3+2-3-2-4-5-4 =43
Patrick Daniel 3-5-5-6-7+4-4-5-6-4-8 =57
Tom Rhodes 6-7-6-5-8+5-5-6-5-7-6 = 66
Jerry Beck 5-6-7-4-5+ 54 =81
Marc Solal 7-8-8-7-6+6-ns-ns-ns-ns-5=84
Caroline Chapin 45+ns-ns-7-7-6-7=86
That is the end of our summer, but these races are not going to count for anything. I finished up our summer two weeks ago so we could have our own trophy presentations. In two weeks the Labor Day series and after that the Kennan starts.
Now back to sailors. We were glad to get Caroline away from the horse thing. She was a little overpowered in the gusts with the full rig, but rusty from most of the summer off. She should be able to manage the gusts we had—sheet out to keep boat flat and some super vang to keep the mast bent.
Marc Solal had an interesting weekend. Finished up Saturday beating two in the last race and on Sunday, he had a little cruise and then came back with a fifth in the last race--- that one was almost a fourth as he led Sam around the leeward mark and was almost laying the finish, but Sam managed to sneak in ahead.
Jerry Beck is one of our middle fleet people. On Saturday just one point behind Patrick for the day. It is really great to have him sailing with us so that three or four of us are all coming together at the marks and at the finish line.
Tom Rhodes is doing better downwind and moved up with a bunch of 5’s on Sunday. Good going, Tom.
Patrick Daniel continues to charge up to the top of the heap. He had a 3 on Saturday and some 4’s on Sunday.
Sam had better starts particularly on Sunday. That helps a lot. Then he noticed that we had big left shifts up near the windward mark and that helped him. If you don’t know which way to go in the northern hemisphere, it should be toward the right. The gradient wind should come from that direction and it did a lot later in the afternoon. But don’t count on that stuff at Lake Eustis.
Dave Chapin came a little late on both days and racked up a lot of bullets. Starts and sailing fast to the shifts I think is what does it for him.
Rob Krentel and Alejandro continue being linked together. Rob was on top last race weekend and he won the first race on Saturday but then Alejandro topped him the rest of the day. On Sunday Rob just didn’t have enough wind to grind him down.
Alejandro Illera is always sailing flat and fast. He usually plays the wind shifts correctly. Watch him if you want to sail better.
Joan Bryant continues to run our race committee. Rob’s mother helped on Saturday and visited with everyone. Robin was back on Sunday and brought Joan because the little Yellow Car went to Orlando to get fixed. It will be coming back all OK on Tuesday.
The trophy presentation was a big success. Past Commodore Gene Day made it over to the club and had a good visit. The cake and ice cream is almost gone and I expect the rest of it will disappear this coming Saturday when the Youth are sailing.
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