The Ladysmith Maritime Society hosted the second “Fun Sail” of 2019 on April 27.
Due to the conditions only three boats entered. Winds were 25 knots with regular gusts to 30 and up to 40 knots.
The course was a rabbit start with Okesa taking the port tack, Paradigm and Geronimo followed. The race started to the south of the beach at Slack Point and the rounding mark was a freighter anchored off Saltair.
All three boats were fairly close on the first leg with Paradigm rounding the mark first with Okesa close behind. Geronimo rounded soon after.
The home leg was directly into the wind. Paradigm was able to point highest and quickly opened up a large lead. Geronimo was sailing on head sail alone, she was unable to tack into the wind and was unable to make any distance back into the bay. When her sail starter to shred she abandoned the race. Okesa was struggling with its own head sail but continued to make some progress.
Paradigm was close to the finish when the skipper lost a shoe and after circling around several times he finally dropped his sails and started the engine. The safety boat (with me aboard) found the shoe and returned it to the owner. By this time Okesa chose to start his engine as he was unable to make enough distance in the rising wind. The event ended with no one crossing the Finish Line.
After three previous “Fun Sail” with hardly any wind this was a big change. Hopefully the next Fun Sail will fall somewhere in between.
