Recap Frostbite #3
“If it breaks, it isn’t strong enough; if it doesn’t break, it’s too heavy”
Yacht Racing, 2nd Axiom
The 3d race of the WCSC Frostbite 2021 Series was an eventful, ugh, event. The weather forecast for the race had been consistent all the preceding week, predicting temperature to top in the low 40s and west winds in the low 20s gusting 30. But at least it was to be cloudy. That did not seem to diminish participation much, with five skippers and crew rigging their boats and attending the pre-race skippers’ meeting. After brief discussion, Course i was chosen. The terminal buoy for that course is the green “11” buoy in the ‘big water’ area of the lake. At 17 miles, this is the longest of the Club distance race courses.
Race committee was able to anchor (and not drag) near buoy S20 to create the start/finish line. I mention this because, true to the forecast, the breeze was quite sporty, and the sea state (ok, lake state) was quite lumpy. All the boats that had reef points in the mainsail were reefed. The boats that had mainsails without reef points were probably wishing for them. As the boats sailed from the harbor to the start area, all but one were over powered and required ‘ragging’ the main to stay upright. Jowell’s Star, with its particularly large main, had great difficulty, and repeatedly rounded up. Eventually, this boat suffered dismasting, with the mast breaking at the spreaders. The one boat that did not seem over powered was Kirk’s Telstar 28 trimaran. He had the main double reefed, and had some of the foresail rolled as well. From the spectator section on the Club lawn, it seemed his boat might have been a little under powered and to have difficulty punching through the eye of the wind to complete tacks.
The race started on time, and Curt in the Catalina 30 was the first to start. The remainder of the fleet, excepting Jowell, started in sequence (correctly or otherwise, and began the L O N G trek to buoy 11. From my vantage, it seemed Ben (Cal 9.2) was slowly overtaking Curt (Catalina 30), and John (J22) was rapidly overtaking both of them. When the boats became specks on the horizon, I changed my vantage by driving to the Richland Creek ramp, near mark D (buoy S10). John was well ahead, and Curt and Ben seemed ‘neck and neck’. And then, as Jimmy Buffett sings in God’s Own Drunk, “…that’s when I first saw the bear SNOW FLAKES”. Yep, this event actually was a frost bite race. (Now you know why I have black sails on Cowardly Lion; it’s so I can see the wind flow across my sails in falling snow.)
I received emails from Ben and Curt, both reporting they had rounded buoy 11 incorrectly, and both requesting to be scored appropriately. I did so, each being listed as “ret” (retired). Being scored as retired yields a boat zero points in a race. My hat’s off to their sense of sportsmanship! I also received the race results by email. All the boats were on the race course for almost four hours. That’s a lot of windy cold. I applaud all who participated, race committee included, to support our Clubs sail activities. Race results can be found on the website: Home > Membership > Club Documentation (you must be logged in) > Race/Regatta Documentation (click on the folder icon, not the text) > Frostbite Series (again, folder icon) > Frostbite Series 2021. The 4th Frostbite race is Saturday, 23 Jan. Skippers’ meeting is at 11:00.