Sunday, July 6, 2014

Harry Anderson + 28mph Wind = Sleigh Rides in Summer

Sleigh ride - Massapoag Style
(Photo by Roger Sharp)

This week's "racing" brought lots of lasers, and a new race course to add to MYCs arsenal. The "racing" was actually more of a survival competition, as winds at race time were from the Northwest at 15, with gusts up to 28 and the course was the infamous "Harry Anderson" course which forces three gybes on each downwind leg.

John Houstle leads Bernadette Levesque
and Mark Stoughton up to the third gybe of the
downwind leg of the infamous "Harry A"
(photo by David Gilman, provided by Eric Aker)
The wind was so strong that it created a 1 foot chop with whitecaps on the lake, which made sure that everyone got thoroughly wet, even if they didn't capsize. The Race Committee managed to get six Sunfish races off, along with two abandonments because too many competitors struggled with hardware problems in the strong breeze. 

John Houstle tuned his boat perfectly for the conditions, and took firsts in 4 of the 6 races, with Mark Stoughton taking the other 2.  Bernadette Levesque took three seconds and 3 thirds in the testing conditions.

3 comments:

  1. That's a great photo by Roger Sharp. How did he get that angle? It almost looks as if he must have been swimming in the water!

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  2. He was running the RC boat that day. He had his GoPro mounted on a pole, and held it out low over the water at the start. It's a still grab from a video. I used the video in the opening of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwGPHOWi_V8

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  3. Jealous! Looks like a great bit of sailing.

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