Well, we are into the home stretch, with only one month left in the series, and the eighth weekend saw the return of several Hampton Roads stalwarts: Richard Biggs, a series regular who was away for a few weekends; Ron Thompson, who just a week before had a solid 5th place finish out of 22 at the Cap City Regatta; Aaron Applegate, who continued to move up the fleet with some very nice finishes and good starts; and Greg Lanese, who reminds everyone looking for adventure this fall to keep the Ocean-venue Neptune race in mind.
And once again, the wind made a pleasant appearance, too, bringing about 8 patchy, shifty knots to the course out of the north and northeast. At least the water was warmish (shorts weather for the frostbite hardened) and the air temperatures climbed up into the 60s. It was the kind of day where you had to stay in the pressure, and the pressure kept moving around. But that made it kind of exciting, with a lot of lead changes and a lot of names in the winner’s circle – if only for one of the five races.
We ran windward leewards again on a half-mile course, with downwind finishes. This is a really convenient setup for the committee, since it involves setting only two marks, the winward and the pin/leeward mark. And the downwind finishes make for some very interesting battles and close calls. The photo above shows another hotly contested battle at the finish line. Greg Lanese took it to finish third, but it was so close that Ron Thompson and I, who were leeward of the line and watching the action, though Richard had taken it. Oh well, next time, Richard. It was a good race.
There is an excellent video of the racing posted on YouTube by Lisa, who did the honors as race committee and brought her camera along. Check it out here if you have a moment. It’s short.
| Pos. | Sailor | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Race 5 | Total |
| 1 | Robert Suhay | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | Andrew Newbold | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| 3 | Ron Thompson | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Greg Lanese | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| 5 | Aaron Applegate | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 24 |
| 6 | Richard Biggs | 5 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 24 |
| 7 | James Shook | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 35 |
Thanks again for everyone who came out and made the event a success. And Lisa, thanks for doing RC duty. And thatnks again to Old Dominion University Sailing for making it all possible.
ILCA-NA District 11 