Hewitt, Bowman sail to victories

The Rendezvous Yacht Club held a new race back on Saturday, Aug. 18 with Colin Hewitt taking top honours.
Traditionally, the mid-August race has been held in Ranier, Mn. in conjunction with Founder’s Day or the Ranier Summer Festival.
This year, the club decided to run the race out of Rainy Lake Marine with a course that has not been completed in recent memory.
From the marina, the sailboats headed east to Pine Narrows with winds primarily out of the south, switching to southeast. After navigating the narrows, the sailors headed back west going south of Stop Island.
They were briefly on the inside channel before heading between Holiday and Preus Islands back to Sand Bay.
The boats then rounded Enos Island, better known to locals as McIntyre, went past a race marker near the point at the marina, and finished by the docks.
Hewitt won aboard the Catalina 25 “Ariba,” with Peter Engberg taking second on the Lindenberg 26 “Wing ‘N It. In third was Todd Hamilton, finishing his first race of the season aboard the San Juan 24 “Mystic.”
In Wednesday night racing, Ron Bowman pulled out a very close race on Aug. 22. After completing a short windward leg near the Rendez-Vous docks, the race course went around Campfire Island and then returned to end near the start line.
Quinn McCarthy aboard “Sedna” took an early lead in the race. He was first across the line and first to the windward mark with Bowman’s “In Tune” not far behind.
With winds out of the southwest, McCarthy’s crew hoisted a reaching spinnaker to take up to Campfire Island while most of the fleet preferred to go wing-on-wing.
(Wing-on-wing is used for going downwind without flying the large spinnakers; the crew moves the main and head sails to opposite sides of the mast so the wind comes from behind to hit both sails).
On this leg, “Sedna” started to pull away slightly from “In Tune” and the others.
As they approached the island, “Sedna” lowered their spinnaker and prepared for a windward beat to the finish line. Bowman’s J24 usually does better on the windward legs and last Wednesday was no different.
McCarthy was able to maintain the lead for most of the race, but Bowman slowly decreased the distance. “In Tune” was able to pass “Sedna” just before the finish line.
With times corrected for handicaps, Bowman won the race, with McCarthy second and Hewitt third.
For more information about the Rendezvous Yacht Club, log on to their website at www.rycweb.org or contact Diane McCarthy at 1-218-283-1060.