LET THE SEASON BEGIN (or wait 2 more weeks)

Olympic Cup Regatta: Races Abandoned

(Sunday, May 27, 2007) A missing mark, no wind, race abandoned -- take your pick. All of these happened to the first Beneteau 40.7 race that was supposed to count for the 2007 season series. On the positive side the fleet made a strong showing for the Olympic Cup Regatta with ten boats on the starting line.

After a half hour postponement the race committee got the starting sequence going. The long course assigned to the 40.7 fleet was called for 2.2 miles at a heading of 240E. Just before the starting gun the wind seemed to be diminishing from about 8 to 6 knots B a harbinger of things to come. Sailors on many of the boats began wondering why the course was so unusually long - for an Area III windward/leeward course.

As the fleet proceeded upwind the wind began dying in earnest. A couple of boats, Bob Vickery's Collaboration and Dave Tarson's Excalibur, who had footed off to the left, gained a nearshore breeze and arrived at the windward end of the course well before the others only to be surprised to find that the long course mark was missing! Bob called the race committee for clarification but there was no response. Meanwhile, on their own radio channel, the race committee was carrying on a discussion of the problem. It seems as if the crew on the windward committee boat had been under the mistaken belief that all vessels on the long course had completed their rounding of the windward mark, no jibs were seen coming upwind, so they pulled the mark and departed. Of course the ten boats in the 40.7 fleet were still clearly visible under jib working their way upwind. The PRO, Bow Lingle, instructed one of the RC boats to go to where the windward mark should be and display the "M" flag, which they did. There was also a private comment by the RC on their channel that because of the mark snafu, this race for the 40.7's would have to be cancelled though no official notification of this was ever made to the section.

Meanwhile confusion reigned in the 40.7 section. Two boats, Jay Muller's Das Boot, and Clem Boltz' Cancan deux were reported to have rounded the short course mark. Don Hayes' Tsunami immediately protested the short course rounders.

Bob Vickery (Collaboration) had this to say about the missing mark: "Sunday's race was a difficult situation for the RC made more difficult by lackluster performance on the mark boat. In regard to our fleet, the moment the RC mark boat lifted the mark our race was doomed. The RC had little option other than abandoning our race the moment we made a radio call notifying them that the mark was lifted. I think that was all they could do and should have done. Their radio silence was extremely frustrating, however. At the very least they should have made a broadcast announcement that the 40.7's race was abandonned and ask us to return to the starting area."

Jay Muller (Das Boot) offered this thought on when not to start races: "I still believe we should set limits like the AC for wind range (8-23 knts), but I know I am a cult of one in that."

As the breeze began to fill in to about 8 knots Collaboration and Excalibur began their downwind journey. Subsequently, Turning Point, Vayu, La Tempete, Tsunami, Barracuda, and Mojo, rounded the "M" mark, probably in that order. However, about fifteen minutes later the breeze died again leaving most of the fleet stuck somewhere on that downwind leg. A shortened course was announced and the finish line would be at the end of the downwind leg. This caused more confusion as to how to finish, what side of the boat, and was the orange buoy to be rounded or not although the answer lay in the racing rules and the SSI's. For almost an hour there was little or no wind as each vessel struggled to finish.

More and more boats from the various sections began piling up. The finish line began looking like a parking lot with laundry hanging limply from the rigging. Finally, the race committee mercifully abandoned the race. A cheer went up from the Area III sailors.

In one minute the sails were down, engines started, and everyone was heading for their home port.

Of course half an hour later the wind picked up, at least within a mile of shore, and several boats reported winds up to 19 knots on the trip home.

Only the Tartan Ten fleet was able to complete a shortened race course on Sunday. Races for all other sections including the Beneteau 40.7's were abandoned. This is the second weekend in a row that races were abandoned by Area III (no fault of theirs, of course). Last weekend, for the Abe Jacobs regatta, with waves running up to 7 feet, and a cold 41° north wind blowing at 20 knots, the race committee prudently decided to abandon racing for the day. So far this year the 40.7's have not met in battle.

At the end of the day, many of the fleet representing six boats (La Tempete, Tsunami, Vayu, Das Boot, Excalibur, and Cancan) gathered at Vayu's slip in Montrose Harbor for the 40.7 Kick Off the Season Party and an evening of conversation, drinks and fun.

Photos of the Olympic Cupt are at: Olympic Cup '07 Photos

Photos of the Spring Party are at: Spring '07 Party

The next scheduled event for the 40.7 fleet is the Columbia Colors regatta on June 9-10th.