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Texas Regatta Index
Texas Lakes
A cold morning gave way to sunshine on Stillhouse Hollow Lake as the competitors gathered at the starting line for the Bridge Too Far race. Steve Wesson sailed his Freedom 21 with Jim and Ed for crew. Several club members crewed instead of sailing their own boats, some boats were out for repairs.
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Joe Starkl in his Hunter 31 had his bimini up before the race. Joe finished the 20 mile race in 2nd place in just under 4 hours and 43 minutes. The light winds at the start changed to "variable" during the race to make it quite challenging. Wind speed varied from near zero to 20 mph and the direction was all over the compass.
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Sonny and Sue Buck were the fastest husband/wife team in their Flying Dutchman, crossing the finish line 3rd but their low handicap dropped them to 5th after corrected time.
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Rick Powers sailed his Freedom 21. Rick and Steve sailed a close race in their near identical boats, Rick finished less than two minutes behind Steve after almost 5 hours and 30 minutes.
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The race up Stillhouse Hollow Lake is a challenge, with the keelboats having to follow the channel David and Sonny took their centerboard boats through the trees for a shortcut. A bit dangerous as many of the trees are barely under the water, and it didn't help much because the wind near the shore was very weak, but it was fun.
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Shortly after cutting through the trees, Forest is convinced we are in 1st place. This is the first race for Alison and I, and we had fun winning first place. The wind picked up and was gusty, we almost went over while flying the spinnaker and a gust came abeam but releasing the sheet saved us with just a couple blisters. We ran hard aground once with one of our shortcuts, and later we laid the Scot over when another gust backwinded the jib and Forest couldn't get it loose soon enough. Shipped some water that time, and for the third year in a row my digital camera got wet at the Bridge Too Far race. The screen quit working, so the rest of the pictures I just had to point and click hoping I was pointing the right way!
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We kept a close eye on the other boats following back from the bridge, they were just around the bend.
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Alison and David with a comfortable lead near the end of the race. They finished in 4 hours 31 minutes.
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Alison took the tiller several times during the race and did very well.
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Sue took the helm of the Flying Dutchman to cross the finish line.
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Joyce shows her joy at seeing her spouse Steve appear for the final run to the finish line.
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Steve flies the spinnaker across the finish with Rick close behind. The Freedom 21's did well going downwind to the bridge with their reaching spinnakers, but the upwind sailing on the way back hurt them.
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Rick Powers crosses the finish line less than two minutes after Steve, incredibly close after almost 5 1/2 hours! We all enjoyed the after race meal that Commodore Joe P. grilled on the BBQ pit on the dock.
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