Quannapowitt Yacht Club

From the beach area, the wind ripples on the lake gave the water a deep green/gray hue. The monotone surface suggested no puffs and no lulls, just a steady consistent 8 to 10 knot breeze that should place a premium on sail trim and boat handling in the upcoming club races. This eyeball assessment didn’t come close to forecasting the squirrelly shifting breeze that played games all across the race course a half hour later with gusts that flogged the Laser’s sail and lulls that had me crowded up against the centerboard.

I tried to hold my place a couple of boat lengths from the pin end of the line as the start sequence wound down; the wind backed and backed until I couldn’t clear the pin. I trimmed in and gathered momentum to jibe behind the small fleet. I spun around and came up on a port tack headed for the right side. I had given up too many boat lengths to make the top mark before the Flying Scots, but I was in contention and we had a repeat, so I had plenty of time for the shift that would give back all the last one had taken.

Down the two reach legs I lost ground as the two Scots sailed into nice puffs and I just lulled along. They rounded the leeward mark and headed out toward the right side. I rounded and the breeze backed again and I was lifted on port tack above their course. This is one of those times you hold your breath. If they missed the shift I could make up some serious ground. The back continued until I was laying the mark on port.
They were also on port but headed almost 90 degrees lower than I was. Why weren’t they lifted? Was it inattention or was the breeze that different over the small distance of our course? By the time they saw what I was getting and they tacked to get to the shift they were 15 boat lengths below me.  The breeze eased as I rounded the top mark. They struggled to keep height and speed as I reached casually off to the jibe mark and when the pressure came back again I was planning down the run and safely headed for a first place finish.

The breeze was just that different across the course. Was it a fair race? Hard for the winner to give an impartial assessment, but it did keep all of our attention on the big picture. And it did underline how important it is to not give up, especially when you’re sailing on a lake.