MC Scow at Elephant Butte Lake, Bristol Cup Regatta weekend

Jeff glides along on a quiet autumn lake on October 24th, 2009, in southern New Mexico before a Rio Grande Sailing Club regatta.

Joshua Slocum single-handed race, Saturday May 9, 2009 at the Butte

J/24 "Oso" before the start of the Joshua Slocum single-handed regatta at Elephant Butte Lake.




Constellation next to capsized MC Scow. A little later, the sailing club's motorboat and race committee crew helped the scow skipper recover.

For me, the race had its ups and downs and oddities. Before the start of the regatta I managed to bonk a port-tacker I didn't see coming. Just before the start, a big puff of wind made things a little too exciting and confusing, and hoisting the spinnaker in the puffy conditions for the downwind leg was "educational".

Spring Series 2 at Elephant Butte Lake (I)

MC Scow 586 sailing before the start of the Spring Series 2 regatta at Elephant Butte Lake on April 18, 2009.

"Dumbledore" on stern of Windependent, which was the committee boat for the Rio Grande Sailing Club's spring series 2 regatta in southern New Mexico.

Stern view, MC Scw 586




"Dumbledore" transferring back to Kachina after helping check out engine trouble on Windependent. It turned out that Windpendent was out of diesel fuel. Fuel was transferred from a spare jug on board but too much air was in the fuel lines for the engine to start, and the battery wasn't sufficiently charged to help bleed the air out of the lines before it died. At the end of the day, Windependent had to be towed by a J/24 with a 2.5-horsepower engine. (The RGSC motorboat had been dismissed for the day.)