Sunday night update after the Birthday Regatta

Today's winds were stronger and longer lasting than Saturday's, so we completed three races for all sailboat classes. The third race was a tough squeeze, with the wind dropping to near-drifting conditions for much of the time, but the first and second race had good sailing wind. Vipers, Buccaneers, Merit 25s, Catalina 22s were one-design classes, with multihulls, PHRF spinnaker, PHRF non-spin, and Portsmouth as handicap classes.

We had a few challenges, particularly with a shortage of race committee volunteers. We also had some tense moments when the anchor rode for the finish pin decided to decorate the propeller shaft of the mark set boat. A third boat and a couple of pieces of gear might have been handy in allowing the committee to more readily finish boats by shortening courses.

Trivia bit: I wonder how often sailboat race protests fail because of lack of evidence?

Saturday afternoon I had a RRS 11 protest hearing. The other PC members and I asked relevant questions, identified the rules and issues, and got a good sense of what happened on the race course. But, there was enough inconsistency and inadequacy in the witness and boat information to severely limit the facts that could be found.