C.R.A.N.N.E. Sailing

From Commodore Craig:

Three cats from the CRANNE fleet showed up to compete against the five other catamarans from the NENSA Fleet and the Maine Hobie Fleet. The quote of the weekend was:
I asked the Chase boat captain: "Captain Dave, What do you think the wind speed is, 12 knots, 14 knots, or 16 knots?"
Dave thought a moment and then answered, "The Wind Speed is Perfect!”

You can not sum it up any better than that. Saturday's racing started promptly at 11:20 AM in absolutely beautiful conditions, Sunny Skies, Warm Temps and a solid 14 knot breeze. A bit of chop left over from the previous days Nor-Easter made for fun wet sailing for the cats. The chop made the committee boat and the chase boat work a bit challenging. Commodore Craig likes a long beat to weather so the downwind sleigh ride will provide plenty of opportunities for boat speed to allow for passes to be made but a mistake was made when the windward mark was set a bit too far out to sea. The chase boat, committee boat and the competitors all seemed to be unable to see the mark. It made for an interesting first few races where the cats would all beat up the middle of the course, at one point, tacking 5 times before making it to the Windward Mark! They all found it, and probably had a few curses for the chase boat but when the spinnakers were set the smiles could not be missed as the cats rocketed downwind. A four cylinder engine on the chase boat was not enough as we were unable to match the speed of the cats downwind! 5 great races were had with all the F18s leading races at one point in time. Mike Easton and Chris Burd proved top shelf again. They did show a kink in the armor when Chris and Sam performed an excellent roll over them at the windward mark with a perfect hoist to steal their wind for the pass and never looked back to steal race #3.

The Hobie 16 battle had Doug and Hanna taking on the Phil and Son and they too were all smiles fully trapped out going to weather. Former Commodore Scott Malcolm was enjoying the conditions with the his monstrous Nacra 6.0 eating up the choppy seas with ease!

Saturday night the fleet enjoyed the fabulous cuisine at the Clam Bake restaurant. When the keg arrived at former Commodore's Dave Fortier's house the teams were all too tired to tap the Keg! It was debated now that the F18 fleet is getting older, rather than a beer sponsor next year the F18 fleet will see if Ben-Gay is willing to make a Muscle Rub Cream sponsor/donation to the fleet! Metamucil? Ovaltine?

Sunday brought the good old Maine Fog to the regatta site, the sailors all gathered and shared stories from the previous day. The start was delayed but then the committee and chase boats tried to make an effort to start a race but the fog rolled back in. Sunday's racing was canceled and the fleet had the trophy ceremony and then gathered at a local diner for lunch. With the crazy weather this summer a comment was stated that so far, three major regattas this summer have lost a day of racing each due to bad weather.