USOM EVENT RESULTS –SATURDAY  15 JULY – MANSFIELD HOLLOW SITE

    Ok, pretend you have a request card for what kind of day for sailing you would like….The temperature would be around 80 F; the sky would be overcast to eliminate bright sun and glare; we would all be able to sail under the shade of a big tree and still have great visibility of the course; the winds should be around 5-6 mph with occasional gusts to 10 for variety. The direction should be pretty close to parallel to the shore. There should be shifts of around 30 degrees that last less than five minutes. These shifts could reward the clever sailor who sailed towards the next shift and could tack at the lay line and take advantage of it. All the competitors would be reasonable and would recognized the errors of their ways and perform circles when requested and finally all, but you were Angelina Joli clones……..wait, maybe that might be too distracting, especially if that clone wearing a bikini sounded like Fran Gowash.

    Anyway, that is pretty close to what we had for a nice day at the lake. I admit it, sailing for me is too much of a Zen experience. Sometimes I forget that I need to get back to the start line for the next race, I just want to let the boat have its way and keep on grooving. I mind meld with the boat and go with the flow. The daily crunch of life is left behind; wars are ignored, the leaking faucet does not exist, medical problems are given a holiday for a few hours and global warming is good at the beach. On the other hand, the competition continues; the dog eat dog striving is shown below where Ron Rhault is top dog with the rest of us nipping at his heels. John Whalen has a chance to win the series if he shows up and beats Ron for a few races.