MYC@BYC Week 1: The Curse of the Camera: BROKEN!

Ken Charles beating his way through the fleet on a way winning the 1st race of the 2014 season.

The Spring 2014 Barrington Frostbite season got off to s strong start today, with 10 boats on the line on a beautiful brisk, sunny day.  Winds varied between 0 and 20 mph, with gentle shifts anywhere between 5 and 270 degrees. More than once, boats sailing in the same upwind heading were seen to be on different tacks. Downwind legs mysteriously became upwind legs. Reaches just as mysteriously became runs.

Ken Charles was able to pick his way through the shifts better than anyone else today, taking 1st in the A fleet and overall. More importantly, he broke the curse of the BoatCam! All of the other hapless BoatCam victims have suffered one malady after another on the race course on the day that they were chosen to carry the camera.  Ken decisively broke the curse by taking three 1sts in the 6 races run today.

In the B fleet, John House and Mark Stoughton fought a close duel all day, both finishing the day with the same number of points. John took first for the day after the scores were run through the tiebreaker.


R.I.P. Boatcam One

Today was to have been the first day with dual BoatCam coverage. We had BoatCam 2 on one A fleet boat and BoatCam 1 was returning to service after a year's layoff on one B fleet boat.

BoatCam 1: Somewhere under there, still filming.

During the start of the 4th race, the boom of the B fleet Victim's boat made contact with another boat.  The camera mount snapped, and the camera dangled precariously for several seconds before dropping off the boom into the depths of the Barrington River, still filming.

Boatcam One was getting long in the tooth. It was five years old and had developed a camera's version of Macular Degeneration in the last couple of years, with a large out of focus spot in the middle of its field of view. It was also coming down with Camera Alzheimer's, and would occasionally refuse to write to the SD card, but when it delivered footage, it was always good. It was doing what it loved when it dropped off the boat, and now it will film forever under the waves.