Twilight Race 1 Recap

Deborah Wressell

Whether your pleasure sail or race, you learn over time that the cosmic force that controls the wind and weather has a perverse sense of humor.  Last summer Wednesday nights were a seemingly endless series of cancellations for either no wind or thunderstorms.

This past Wednesday, we initiated the Twilight racing season with casual, doesn’t count, just for fun racing.  And for that, the cosmic weather force delivered a glorious evening of 8 to 10 knots, slightly warm, firm and steady out of the southwest.

With six competitors, three each from divisions 2 and 3, RC elected to start everyone together.  Code flag I was hoisted, and accompanied by a firm warning from the PRO that RC was not interested in running a second start sequence.

In the interest of having as few people as possible on Sachem, the Twilight SI’s have been changed to use the RRS-designated sound signals in place of the normal flags supplemented by sounds.  For those of you planning to start racing next week, note two items:

1.       RRS Appendix U Audible-Signal Racing System is a 3-minute start sequence, not the familiar 5 minutes.

2.       The six boats that started looked like they had been at it all season:  The were all at the line on time, going full speed, with not an OCS in the bunch.  The rest of the fleet is hereby warned that these six are going to be tough competition this year!

Family team Ornstein on Dursey was dominant, finishing over two minutes ahead the clutch of four boats that came so close together that it wasn’t clea until the last several seconds who would cross ahead of whom.

RC hats off to everyone – Dursey, Redline, Liberty, Nemesis gleaming with new awlgrip, Timaru, and Carpe Diem - for great tight racing.

There was one more cosmic weather joke to round off the evening.  As everyone was enjoying their drinks and dinners on the patio, the skies darkened, thunder clapped, lightening flashed, and the rain drove at us sideways.  Just in case we forgot last summer.