Sat, Sept 20 was the evening to be at PCYC for the end of season celebration; the Awards Banquet.
Between the Susan Hood Trophy Race and the Lake Ontario 300/600 Challenge, it was a full evening with a long list of who’s who in local racing with EYC well represented.
The Susan Hood Trophy Race
89 boats registers, 87 boats started and 65 boats finished a classic Susan Hood Trophy Race.
This may have been one of the slowest races in its almost 60 year history; with only two boats in PHRF and one boat in IRC recording an elapsed finishing time under 24 hours and the rest of the race finishing under 27 hours elapsed time.
Unlike previous races that started under light and variable wind conditions, the wind in year’s race did not pick up at either turning mark or anywhere in between. No significant storms, not many clouds to speak of either. Constantly shifting the wind provided an excellent challenge that kept everyone on their toes looking for an advantage on the fleet.
5 EYC boats participated – and all finished.
- Malcolm Little, on Little Bird, finished 2nd in his fully crewed whitesail fleet.
- Mac McKenzie, on Worthy Pearl, finished 3rd in his single-handed spinnaker fleet.
- Mac Sadowski, on Zoom, also finished 3rd, in his IRC fleet.
- Ron Ander, on Alchemist, finished 6th out of 9 in his fully crewed spinnaker fleet, or, as Ron likes to put it, 12th out of 59 overall.
- Les Wardrop, on Shockwave, finished 9th in his fully crewed spinnaker fleet.
Mac, 27 hours of single-handed spinnaker racing in fluky winds; are you nuts?
PCYC did well in this event, taking 6 of the 14 firsts available.
For full results of the “Hood”; read more…
The Lake Ontario 300 Challenge
As it turned out the wind and the waves made the final approach to Main Duck a little uncomfortable for the fleet.
Seasickness was not uncommon at this stage of the course.
But crew were not the only ones to suffer.
Frank Vetricek, sailing on PCY’s Freestyle, broke a boom. With an aft wind, they had a preventer set but, when an accidental gybe occurred, it only prevented half the boom from gybing. Ouch!
Chris Ufton, sailing his trimaran, Three Cheers, found conditions approaching the Duck to be more than uncomfortable; he buried his bow more than once and found himself unable to reduce or lower his main. Ouch! He has since retrofitted his rig to ensure he’s not going to be in that position again.
Other EYC sailors had better luck.
- Malcolm Little, on Little Bird, took a first in the fully crewed white-sail fleet.
- Bob Gauthier, on Distant Thunder, took a first in the fully crewed spinnaker fleet.
- Chris Ufton, Three Cheers, despite his issues, still received a second in the Multihull fleet
- John McLeod, in Hot Water, placed first in IRC division 1. Pretty amazing as he was sailing double handed in a fully crewed fleet.
- Mac Sadowski, with “Zoom” living up to her name, zoomed into first in the PHRF Double Handed, Division 1.
- In division 2, John Hagen on Les, took 3rd place.
- In the Solo Challenge, Mac McKenzie, on Worthy Pearl, received two awards; third overall and the GLSS President’s Challenge Cup* for Top first time finisher.
* Presented by The Great Lakes Single-handed Society in 2010 to the LO300, this trophy is awarded to the first non GLSS member to finish the LO300 in the Solo Challenge Division.
OSA Offshore Keelboat Champions
The “Gold Cup Trophy” is for the best combined corrected times for the Susan Hood Trophy Race and The Lake Ontario 300 Challenge and was awarded to John McLeod, in Hot Water.
Congratulations to all our racers.
It seems that we’ve been fielding some strong competitors to these events.
Did they sharpen their skills competing here in the EYC events?
If I missed anyone, please update me.
See you aBout!
Read earlier report on the LO300/600 – HERE…
Sailing With Devious, 2014 