Maytham Regatta 2015

Every September the PDYC Race Division holds a regatta named after one of the founders of sailboat racing in Port Dover (and the designer of the Maid in the Mist) . This year the races were held on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. I was on the committee boat for the duration.
The weather in September can be quite variable and there have been times, in past years, where we have been bobbing around on the lake praying for wind. Not so this year. All three days had consistently "high" winds (gusting to "very high" at times). Luckily our committee boat, Caramel, rides the swells quite well and the winds were from the North so waves did not have far to build.

Friday evening's race started in daylight at 6:30. It was grey, windy and cold with occasional light rain. You can see from the pictures that crew were in foul weather gear and warm clothing. Such a contrast from last weekend when we were baking in hot, humid, sunny weather.

Goldfingers. All weekend boats were heeled over so I have lots of pictures of
their bottom paint.

Enigma's bottom.

Solstice. Doesn't that look like fun.

We started the boats off round a race mark, down to a buoy off Nanticoke and back. By the time we were finishing them it was dark. We could just make out the tetrahedron, at the other end of the finish line, with binoculars and couldn't take our eyes off it or would lose it. The finishing boats also had trouble finding us and the finish line and we had to get them to identify themselves after they finished because we couldn't see names or sail numbers. We realized that the committee boat needed some special lights (perhaps patio lanterns) and the tetrahedron also needed to be lit somehow.

Saturday mornings race started at 10 and it was dismal: grey, raining, windy (Alistair said it reminded him of home - he's Scottish). The race was round a race mark, down to the Turkey Point buoy and back. They disappeared into the rain and mist. We weren't sure how long it would take the lead boat so opted to stay out there for the duration. We snacked, chatted and listened to music (thanks Alistair) until the fleet started emerging on the horizon.

Sunday was a slightly better day. Still windy and cold but no rain! We actually glimpsed blue sky. We ran 3 races that just went around the race marks that we use for our regular evening races. There was no time between the finishing of the last boat and the start of the next race which left some boats scrambling if they had decided to change headsails (or eat lunch).

Everyone was still all bundled up.

Le Loup Marin came first overall in the Jib and Main Fleet even  though
they managed to mess up on one of the courses.

Starts were very competitive and we had to recall the Spinnaker fleet once and start them again.

Sequence and a number of other boats had gone ever the line early.

Ritual was first overall in the Spinnaker Fleet

Danielle helmed her first complete race. Actually she helmed three!

It was pretty windy and some boats chose not to fly their Spinnakers. But some did and
it makes for some pretty pictures.

Sunday ended with Beef on a Bun, salads, drinks and awards. Exhausting but fun weekend.