TSUNAMI SAILS TO W.MARINE/COLUMBIA VICTORY[Sunday, June 4, 2006. Chicago]  In light wind of mostly 5 to 9 knots out of the north, Don Hayes and his crew aboard Tsunami, the king of the 40.7 fleet in light air, won the last race of the West Marine/Columbia Yacht Club and clinched the three-race regatta championship.            With ten boats at the starting line, this was the largest section of 40.7’s ever in this event.  This is also the only 40.7 event of the year in which professional (non-group 1) sailors are allowed aboard.  Perry Lewis of North Sails  was reported aboard Bob Vickery’s Collaboration,  Mike Considine of UK-Halsey Sails was aboard Jay Muller’s Das Boot, and Andrew Kerr of North U was aboard Ron Buzil’s Vayu.            On Saturday, with the fleet lined up and just minutes to go before the starting sequence began, all races  for the day were abandoned when one of the race committee’s mark boats capsized in the 2-3’ chop building in the 15 knot north wind.  Much of the race support gear, GPS’s, radios, marks and anchors, were lost in the accident but reportedly nobody was hurt.  Many of the 40.7’s took advantage of the good wind to use the day to practice, some by themselves and half the fleet including Barracuda, Das Boot, Excalibur, Spanker, and Vayu sailed several long upwind/downwind legs to tune up with each other.  Due to the fact that there was no racing on Saturday the scheduled race clinic was not held and the late last finish on Sunday precluded the clinic that day.  Andrew Kerr and any of the pros who wish to contribute will analyze the racing on our website.  We can have an open discussion via email (if you wish to read or participate make sure the fleet has your email address by sending an email to Ron Buzil at cygnus@interaccess.com).  Going into the final race of the day on Sunday, Collaboration and Das Boot were in 1^st place with 7 points each, the tie-breaker going to Collaboration who had won the 2^nd race.  Vayu and Tsunami were tied for 3^rd place with 8 points apiece, tie-breaker to Vayu with a 3^rd in the first race.  Alan McMillan’s Finesse was in 5^th place with 9 points.  At the start of that last race, Tsunami blasted off at the pin end with Vayu to weather of them and Das Boot to weather of Vayu.  Tsunami and Vayu went pretty far left where they may have been more perceived pressure.  At the first weather mark the order of rounding was Tsunami, then Cancan.  Vayu had approached the starboard layline on the port layline and in a conservative move, ducked Cancan to round in third place.  Das Boot in fourth place.  At the leeward rounding mark it was still Tsunami in first, but Vayu had passed Cancan and was now in 2^nd place with Das Boot in third.  Any one of the boats, Das Boot, Collaboration, Tsunami, or Vayu could win the regatta with a bullet in the last race.  After the bottom mark rounding, with lots of noise and excitement as several boats, not all from our section, were jockeying for position, Tsunami took off on port tack and opened up their lead on Vayu who opened their lead on Das Boot.  But when finally approaching the last weather mark of the regatta, with Tsunami holding a comfortable lead of 5 boatlengths, Vayu tacked for the layline with a thin lead of maybe 1 length ahead of Das Boot.  Coming around the mark and sailing as fast as possible in the light wind Vayu and Tsunami headed right (looking downwind) as Tsunami soon gybed to port and headed for the left side of the course.  Das Boot gybed next.  Vayu held course a ways, then boxed in by some J105’s held on a little longer and finally gybed.  Now it was La Tempete’s turn to enter the fray as the lead boats approached the finish.  As Vayu continued on port tack the other three boats were on starboard tack, Tsunami safely in the lead on the layline to the finish line.  Das Boot was also on the layline behind Tsunami.  La Tempete was above the layline by about 10 boatlengths.  Vayu, still on port, crossed ahead of La Tempete, then gybed to starboard just ahead of Das Boot and behind Tsunami who was now approaching the finish.  Das Boot began heading up trying to throw bad air on Vayu.  As Vayu matched Das Boot’s angle a quick negotiation was held that brought both boats back to proper course as it became obvious that sailing too high was going to spoil the race (and regatta) for both of them.  Approaching the finish line and having taken advantage of the short duel between Das Boot and Vayu, Cancan and La Tempete came charging in.  La Tempete was now ahead of Vayu and crossed the line in 2^nd place.  It was a close finish between Vayu and Cancan, who was now just to leeward of Vayu, but Vayu edged out 3rd place by 1/3 of a length.  One final note, Collaboration was disqualified in the 3rd race after losing a protest to Cancan.

Final Official Scores: