Wednesday Racing on August 3, 2005

Wind in the 8-10 range coming across the water provided natural air conditioning on a hot early august day. The attraction was undeniable and twenty sailors came out to take advantage of the opportunity. Only late in the evening, during the fourth race did the wind moderate.

Our race committee featured the debut of Mandy Middlewood. A bad knee freed up Pat Dolan's boat for guest Randy Juras, so Pat climibed aboard the Committee Boat. Randy's wife Anna went along for the ride and Hal Baar helped out too. Anna Hamilton took charge of the Committee Boat side of things while Laura Anderson went in the Safety Boat to move marks, keep track of safety issues and took pictures.

Twelve Lasers on the water resulted in some crowded mark roundings and a lot of fun.

Ian Clemens provided some excitement in the first race by catching the ground tackle for the windward mark and dragging it a while before extracating himself. Sunfish Sailors had a bit of a moving target for a while.

Eight Sunfish joined the racing. Here we caught all but one in a picture converging on the windward mark.

Ann Siegle was on the water for the first time since 2003. We've missed her. However, she hasn't got far to go to get in full form again - she had a fourth place finish in one of the races.

Dave Vietti slides past the mark.

There are some weed patches out there. Scott Watkins clears his board.

John Fishbeck gets ready to bear away at the windward mark.

Coleman Baar checks his sail trim.

Gil Chesbro and Dennis Dudley approach windward mark.

Gil prepares to round - raising the board a little to help bear-away.

Dennis has good speed coming to the mark.

And off they go on the first reaching leg.

Jim Fletcher won the first two Sunfish races.

George Siegle and Olav Messerschmidt chat after a race as they wait for the Sunfish to finish and the next Laser race to start.

Randy Juras is new to town. He and wife Anna are newlyweds and preparing for several years of grad work at MSU. Pat Dolan had him as guest and let him use the Dolan Laser. It had been a while since Randy had done some Laser sailing - but it wasn't long before he had the boat going very well.

Olav Messerschmidt and Doug Carlson were consistently among the Laser leaders. Here Doug is on port.

Neil Harrison checks behind for traffic.

Lasers come to the finish.

Alanna Harvey was held up a work - so she arrived after the first race was complete.

The camera caught her in both upwind and downwind modes.

In the first race, all the Lasers chased Joel Shapiro - but never caught him.

Neil Harrison chases the fleet on the reaching legs in this race. He ended up third in the first race.

Mike Moody led the Lasers in Race Three - all the way to the end.

Wayne Loescher had some equipment problems - but managed to finish all but the last race.

The camera caught Maribeth Fletcher both upwind and downwind.

Maribeth had a third and a fourth in her best finishes this day of racing.

Olav Messerschmidt, one of the fleet leaders, ended up with a couple of fourth place finishes tonight.

Mike Moody quickly bore away to defend his position on the line. In the process his tiller caught Ann Siegle's mainsheet. Mike is shown here untangling himself - while Ann is wondering why she is suddenly sailing backward.

Joel Shapiro got his licks in early with a win in the first race.

George Siegle tacks for the mark. Susanna Tellschow is in the background.

Gil Chesbro, Maribeth Fletcher and Alanna Harvey look for clean air.

Sunfish just after the start of the fourth race. Suddenly the wind lightened up.

John Fishbeck was pretty relaxed as he crossed the finish line in the final race. Looks like Jim Fletcher is in the same mode.

Susanna Tellschow and Ian Clemens on the upwind leg.

Dave Vietti has just passed the windward mark while Neil Harrison is just getting ready to round.

Dave heads downwind.

Scott Watkins is always in the middle of the action.

Dave Vietti and Maribeth Fletcher head upwind in the final race as the wind dies.