Sailors celebrated the beginning of fall EYC, as they were welcomed to Fern Ridge by chilly, cloudy weather. Boats were rigged, foul weather gear was pulled out of storage and sunblock was left buried below. Bundled up and prepared to get wet, we all left the docks in high spirits for the first gun at 1 pm, eager to race in the stiff breeze that had filled in over the lake. 

The wind held up for the first race, but began to die down as the fleet was finishing, establishing the wind pattern for the weekend—shifty in both direction and velocity. In preparation for a light-air second race, the race committee changed the course from a triangle to a windward-leeward.  The breeze continued to drop throughout the first upwind leg and completely shut off as the fleet rounded the windward mark, forcing crews to put all weight to leeward in feeble attempts to fill their spinakers. As we drifted slowly towards the leeward mark, some boats were going high and some low in search of breeze. The wind slowly filled back in towards the end of the second leg, just in time to create an interesting leeward mark rounding for the front half of the fleet. H₂0 Boa came cruising in from behind on starboard overtaking a pack of port-tack boats around the mark and moving into the lead.  While still somewhat shifty, the wind held for one more race before dinner.

Thinking the committee could have been intending the right-hand one to be a jibe mark for a triangle course, half of the fleet bore off and followed the Lightnings to the left hand mark (the mark also chosen by all the fleets behind the Santanas).  The other half headed for the right-hand mark. As the wind died again after the finish of the first race, we had plenty of time to debate which was the “correct” mark while slowly drifting back down to the start line.  After a second postponement, the wind returned and we were able to get in a fifth and final race.

Back on shore, we kicked back a few beers, socialized, and argued about the leeward mark confusion while waiting three hours for the protest committee to make a final decision and post the results. Ultimately, the race was thrown out for the Santanas because the race committee had created confusion.  It was counted for the other fleets where all boats had rounded the same (“wrong”) mark, as no advantage had been given to any one boat and no protests had been filed. 

All in all, it was a weekend of good racing, as reflected in the results. The fight for first place was a close one, with What about Bob? (Slijper/Clune/Zane) and H₂0 Boa (Mattatall/Southwood/Merryfield) each taking two bullets. It was a tight regatta for the middle of the fleet as well, with a tie for 5^th  between Pizzazz (Murschel/Murchel/Martinez) and One Eyed Jack (Smith/Vaughn/Vaughn) and only a four point difference between 4^th and 7^th.