Sunday, May 8, 2011

Deb's Saturday report from Great 48

Ben and I were going through sailing withdrawal. Since the Midwinters in March (Sarasota) we hadn't been on the water. The Great 48 is hosted by Lake Norman Yacht Club in Mooresville, NC, just outside of Charlotte. That's a long drive for us (no duh, I can hear you saying!) but it's always worth it. This is just such a friendly and generous club that, no matter the sailing conditions, we have a good time. This year 33 boats registered and we sailed all in one fleet.

Yesterday (it's Sunday morning right now) things look dubious. We all got to the race course a bit before 1 pm and then bobbed around like corks for more than an hour. The race committee's patience paid off when the breeze filled in very nicely from the southwest. They ran three great races. This is such a tough fleet that, at the end of the day six boats are within three points of each other, with four boats (including us and Harry Carpenter) tied for fourth!

At the top are John Aras and John Wake with four points, Paul Abdullah and Alex Krumdieck with five points. Next is Steve Shaw with crew Mark Lally.

The social part of the regatta is all things Scottish! In addition to a bagpipe player that performed even as we were sailing into the harbor at the end of the day and then throughout the evening's festivities. We were all required to wear "kilts," which we made with a length of plaid cloth and a rough rope belt and there were competitions in the "boom toss" (hold a boom at the end and try to throw it as far as you can), bocce ball throw and barrel toss. I'll post pictures when we get home...forgot the darn camera cable! Winners in both the men's and women's division won, what else, a small bottle of Scotch! At dinner the tablecloths also were plaid and plaid bunting was hung around the room. I'm only relieved we didn't have to eat haggis!

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