Press Release
Club starts
Fall Series
Despite cloudy and sometimes rainy weather, nine captains and their crews enjoyed great sailing conditions Saturday for the Rendezvous Yacht Club’s annual Mermaid Rock Race.
With north winds of eight-15 m.p.h., it was a challenging course from Grindstone Island around Mermaid Rock and back.
Colin Hewitt, along with Sue Karsnia and Theresa MacRory, won the race aboard the Catalina 25 known as “Ariba.”
The sailors started north of Grindstone Island and, with the wind out of the north, headed upwind through Pine Narrows, then up between Rest and Sandpoint Islands.
Sailboats cannot go directly into the wind, so when the course is set to go that direction, the boats must “tack” back and forth, navigating their boats on a zigzag course.
Just west of Water Narrows, the sailors turned west to go out past the Mermaid Rock.
With the wind channelling between the islands, it was a tacking battle to get through the narrows and out past Copenhagen Island.
From there, the sailors turned southwest, with instructions to go around Eight Mile Island before heading south through American Narrows.
As they rounded Eight Mile, conditions were good for a downwind run to finish at the start line by Grindstone.
For this last leg, several of the boats put up spinnakers—the largest sails on the boat which are usually multi-colored.
Second place went to Roger Ysen, captain of the J24 “In Tune.” Placing third was Quinn McCarthy aboard an S2 7.9, “Surprise.”
Peter Engberg ran the committee boat.
Last Wednesday (July 15), the club started the Fall Series for its weekly races. Four boats competed in strong west winds, featuring gusts over 30 m.p.h.
Ron Bowman set up a windward/leeward course and called for the sailors to complete seven legs.
Engberg captained “Wing ‘N It” to first place for the ‘A’ fleet while Bob Algie, aboard the C&C 24 “Imagine,” won top honors for the ‘B’ fleet.
Placing second was McCarthy (”Surprise”) and Jas Spencer (”Beagle”) in ‘A’/‘B’ fleet, respectively.
If you would like more information, log on to www.rycweb.org or contact Diane McCarthy at 1-218-283-1060.
