Abaco boats in Family Islands Regatta - Day 3

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Today marked a dramatic shift in the weather, with ENE winds of 20 knots. It did indeed shake up the field, as you will see!

The Class A boats started out the afternoon schedule. My 10-foot Caribe rides like a sheet of plywood in 2-foot chop, so I did not follow the boats upwind and downwind. Instead I slogged to the upwind mark and watched the action from there.

You can see the boats beginning to lean as they accelerate from the start. In the stronger winds, Running Tide had the lead first time around the mark, closely followed by Rupert's Legend.

Instead of running away from the field as in the past two days, Tida Wave was hard pressed to squeeze in front of Abaco Rage for the sixth spot. You could hear a hollow "twong" as their hulls collided, and the Rage had to settle for seventh slot.

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In the second upwind leg, Running tide kept the lead but Good News moved in to the second spot.

Tida Wave, now running seventh, got her revenge on the Rage by short-tacking immediately in front of the mark, forcing Rage to fall off and slip to eighth. There was lots of yelling, I think the air turned as blue as the water for a moment.

[PELLUCID]

On the third upwind leg, Good News moved to the lead spot with Red Stripe hot on her tail. Rounding the mark, Good News' boom snagged Red Stripe's jibstay. While shaking her loose, Red Stripe lost a crewman overboard. You can see him clambering back up one of the hiking boards.

Tough crew! They kept going and did not cede second place to Running tide, close behind.

Tida Wave rounded the mark at sixth, and Rage at seventh, this time with enough water between them to keep them out of trouble.

And that's the order they kept all the way to the finish line.

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The Class B races started about 4 this afternoon, by which time a knobby late-day chop had built up in the harbor. I didn't even try to catch the start, instead thumping my way to the upwind mark again to watch the action there.

In these winds, the Class B fleet is quite competitive. The first six boats to round the upwind mark arrived in a tight cluster. Cap'n Ray was in the lead, with Lonesome Dove at number 4 between Lady Sonia and Susan Chase.

But, no collisions!

[PELLUCID]

Rounding the upwind mark the second time, Extasea moved in to the number one spot, followed by Lady Sonia and Cap'n Ray. Lonesome Dove had to settle for fifth, right behind Termites. All in all, a very tight race, and that's the order they kept to the finish.

Some of the boats were rolling badly in the chop. One -- not sure which -- tripped over her boom and sunk!

Better a fifth-place finish than sitting on the bottom.

More race coverage tomorrow!!!

[LarryT]

Wow,
Although I know nothing about sailing, great photos and narrative. Looks like a great event to attend
Thanks for posting
Larry

[JJ]

Also not much of a sailor, but I love the pics and your description of the events. Thanks!

[Patti Puzo]

Bob, you are definitely a forum treasure. Thanks, this chronicle was wonderful. What a treat!

[Abacoparrott]

thanks for the posts Bob.....I enjoyed them as well......Ken

[DaGoose]

Wow, great reporting!
Did they eventually get the sunken boat out of the water?

Tina