Lake Erie Interclub - Long Point Bay Race

We were out the second day of the Interclub, Sunday, on Unison, to start and finish the competitors in the Long Point Bay Race and this time the weather was co-operative.

Boats moored at the Port Dover Yacht Club and on the river have to wait for the bridge (Hwy 6) to open before they can get out into the lake.

Chuck, bombing around the lake in this little boat, basically runs the races. He decides whether there is enough wind to start, sets the start line, determines the course and sets the finish line. On the Saturday he started all the fleets, from this little boat, out at Long Point.

Dreamer is a beautiful wooden boat that I can never resist photographing. Her crew create their own, appropriate, atmosphere as we heard a fiddler playing on board, at one point, and a bagpipes at another.

Once out at the start line the crews have to decide which sails to raise (or ready) depending on the weather conditions and hoist the ones they will start with.

Looks like Caleidoscope is going with a full mainsail and the No 2 headsail (No 1 is the largest, No 3 the smallest).

The 40+ boats are grouped into fleets based on their handicap and we start each fleet separately, the slowest boats first and the fastest boats last. This entails horns and flags at specific intervals and judging the start line (calling back any boat that is over early). Part of the strategy for a skipper (or tactician, if the boat has one) is to determine where to start on the line and in which direction to head first.

The Long Point Bay race went from the race mark off Port Dover harbour to buoys at Turkey Point, Bluffs Bar, Nanticoke Shoal and back to the same point as they started. Its a long race and uses all points of sail.
We motored back into Port Dover and scattered to do chores, walk dogs, nap etc and Chuck radioed for us to go back out as he was considering shortening the course, as the wind was dropping, and we would have to motor to Nanticoke Shoal marker to sit at the finish line. However the wind picked up again and we went back to the original plan, finishing at the same place as they started.

Here comes our first boat. Lake Shark was in the last fleet to be started off and is first across the line.

Fast !

Storm Warning wasn't far behind.

There was a steady stream of boats to keep us busy and some exciting finishes.

Here comes Caleidoscope. They did a sail change at some point, that's their No 1 sail.

We stayed out on the lake, waiting for the smallest and slowest boats to make their way to the finish line and then headed into port as there was a fish fry and awards at the Yacht Club to go to.
Overall the sailors seemed happy, it had been a good, relatively consistent wind, such an improvement over the previous day.

Andre went to set the fenders and I had my first experience at helming a trawler. Not as responsive as a sailboat but a great view from the fly deck. Photo by Dianne.