Official CLR2013 Race Results

[Salty19]

As you all know from reading our dozens of posts on CLR, we have a great time and hold a race, for fun.   The official race results are now in.
Now first, my apologies to all you Com-pac sailors who were not able to make the CLR event and have to endure our endless stories of the great time we've had over the six years of the events (although I couldn't make last years).

Put this event on your list folks, you will not be disappointed.

Mike Greene gave his account of the race in the CLR Pics thread which Bob23 has completely sidetracked, a favorite pastime of his, with some imaginary race story.  
Here is race from my perspective:

Kicknbug officiated with a "ready" blast and "go" blast.  10 boats lined up, a CP23, three CP19's, an Eclipse, four CP16's and an AMF Sunbird 16, a guy who came from TX as he enjoys sailing all the events he can. The destination was about 4.5 miles to the NE, wind from the NNE, expecting to turn ENE. Wind was about 9 and variable in nature. A few tacks to make the upwind mark were going to be in order, making the race longer than the 4.5 mile point to point distance.

Immediately Bruce on his CP19, Luke on his Eclipse jumped out front as did Sailin69 on his CP16. Salty trailed fifth and the other boats were close behind.  A fairly good start for all, after all a trophy was at stake!

Within minutes the larger boats creeped away with Salty inching past Luke in the Eclipse for fourth and leaving Rich and the other CP16's back.
Greene and Salty side by side for 10 minutes,  the 23 moving faster when the wind picked up and soon inched past Salty and took advantage of a slight local wind shift to out tack the pack.  

Bruce was way out in front but not pointing as high as Greene and Salty. Mistakes were made, I kept falling off each time regaining some upwind progress, but still falling behind.

With 30 minutes of the race start, the CP16's, Eclipse and the AMF were at least 1/2 mile back with Greene's 23 and Bruce's 19 out in front, Salty's CP19 in third.
My thoughts at this point was...I'm not going to win this race, Bruce's brand new 165 genny was going to out pull our 2 1/2 year old 140%, and Greene was pulling ahead in the stronger winds.

About 60% across the lake, noticing the two lead boats were taking the long tack, hoping for the expected windshift as the shoreline is approached, I decided to tack early to stay with the stronger winds in the middle of the lake, with hopes the leaders might see some lulls, or perhaps an unfriendly wind shift.

Soon the wind picked up and we were scooting along at a very nice clip, paying full attention to maximizing progress. A decision was made to tack back to the finish, but low and behold as the finish, a mouth of a creek about  1/4 mile wide, was not our racing line once settled into the new course...the wind had shifted and a run into the middle point of the creek was not going to happen. Meanwhile Greene had tacked and we were on intercept courses, with what appeared as though a slight lead by Greene. Bruce was on his first tack, having a long ways to making a mark to enter the inlet. Wind shifts had cursed him, he was now in third place getting further away from Salty and Greene.

Salty tacked and we found Greene on the same tack, each of us gaining and loosing ground as the wind moved slightly up and down or just trying to pinch too high.

We were beating upwind ready to make the final tack into the middle area of the cove, each of us already being blown off course to the line so making the long tach seemed to be prudent. Then as the last mark came into sight..Salty about 100 feet from Greene, slightly ahead but to port with shouting distance being the delta between us near the final mark.

Then I did what every racer would do..I cut off the second place boat and early tacked into the cove, forcing Greene off the wind, hoping for the 23 to slow down enough before the final tack to give a little advantage.  Afterall, we were 100' away from each other over the course of a two hour race, and finish line was only a few minutes away!!!

Greene did fall off, but didn't tack immediately to follow.  I then began to fear the uncertain...would the CP23 on a broader reach be able to catch up and pass us on a close reach??  But soon enough Greene tacked and was right behind, following our line .  The finish line was essential there 5 or 6 minutes later...the entrance to the 1/4 mile creek entrance so Salty and Greene declared as we were talking to each other on the final reach:  "I guess this is the finish line???" and agreed to the race being over.  
60 feet separated us..that my friends is a close race!!!!

If the wind was a little stronger, I bet the Greene's would have caught up and passed us the last fraction of a mile. Regardless, it was a very tight race and we each saw what other boats can do in various conditions.  

With the winds shifting on the others--or so they say   , Greene and Salty found ourselves hanging out in the cove at anchor waiting for the others, and wondering if they would actually be able to make it in (without motoring).  But soon Bruce found third, and McGuyver..a self declared newbie...came in a strong fourth beating the Eclipse by at least 10 minutes, and the CP16's, which were 45-60 minutes behind.

Interestingly, the AMF Sunbird 16 came in 6th, the first of the 16 footers.  In a rare moment,  Kicknbug did not come in last, but rather 8th, beating his arch rival John Woods by a fair margin.  Wroundey came in last rounding out the CLR pack.

Pictures to follow!

[Bob23]

Great account...can't wait for photos.
Bob23

[Greene]

Everything Salty says is true........except for the facts.  Hehehehe!

Mike

[brackish]

Then I did what every racer would do..I cut off the second place boat and early tacked into the cove, forcing Greene off the wind, hoping for the 23 to slow down enough before the final tack to give a little advantage.  Afterall, we were 100' away from each other over the course of a two hour race, and finish line was only a few minutes away!!!

Now wait a minute, you failed to mention whether you were on a starboard tack when you forced Greene down.  I think he should file a protest and send it to the race committee under rule 10 and rule 13.

great report, I suspect with a couple more accounts of the event the truth will become even more cloudy.

[wroundey]

In defense of my illustrious last place finish - about an hour into the race I was extremely frustrated with my CP16's performance - I could not point well, when I realized that night before I had to make some last minute changes and I was now attaching my headsail to the factory original spot rather than to the end of the bowsprit the former owner installed. With this minor change, the blocks for the headsail were now about 12 inches too far forward and would not allow me to sheet the 150 in completely. In mid-race Kay and I swapped headsails to go with the regular jib and it was amazing the improvement in performance. Had I done that earlier I might have done a little better in the race....

[MacGyver]

Wroundey, there is always next year. I recommend coming for the whole CLR, so that you learn the competitions abilities ahead of race day.
Last year we were dead last as well, it was our first year sailing though, but this year we nailed a solid 4th place.

Glad to see you guys make it over! glad to have met you both, and look forward to seeing you again sometime!

Mac

[kickingbug1]

  think anyone would notice if i made a colgate 26 look like a com-pac------maybe some nice round ports?