First Saturday yacht race sees close finish

It was another light air day as the Rendezvous Yacht Club kicked off its Saturday race series with the Sandpoint Island Race.
This same race last year first was postponed due to stormy weather and then cancelled in mid-race due to light winds.
Last year’s cancellation led to the adoption of new rules regarding the ending of races. And those rules were tested for the first time this past Saturday.
The desired course for the Sandpoint Island Race is to circumnavigate the entire island. With good wind, this can take a matter of hours. But with the extremely light wind on Saturday, it was evident it could take the entire day.
Implementing the new rules, the race committee determined “gates” for the sailors–specific spots such as a buoy or other fixed marker that the lead boat must reach by a predetermined time or the race will end at the gate.
This year’s race ended at the first gate.
The winner after a gruelling afternoon in the heat was Warren Wagness, captaining the San Juan 24 known as Slug. Coming in second was Sedna, an S2 7.9 piloted by Quinn McCarthy.
Rounding out the fleet was Lonnie Parson in the Vixen.
Despite the light wind, the physcial race was extremely close. Slug crossed the finish line a mere 10 seconds after Sedna. But Sedna’s corrected time was 2:52.51 while Slug’s time was 2:40.69.
Meanwhile, the third Wednesday race of the Spring Series last week was held under high water, gray skies, and a very light northeast wind. (but at least it quit snowing!)
The high water makes sailing very difficult in light winds–all boats were going sideways towards the railway bridge at Ranier at times.
Quinn McCarthy, aboard Sedna, managed to find new puffs of wind to finish first in a corrected time of 41.95 minutes.
Todd Hamilton’s Tanzer 22 finished second in 45.66 minutes after a strong first leg but Bob Hamilton, aboard the Sour Puss, did not finish due to the light winds.
Hopefully this week will bring more wind, fairer skies, less water, and more boats in the lake.
Thanks again to Jack Bartlett, Creighton Graham, and John Deschamps, along with Gary Sauter aboard the committee boat, for running the race.