On October 29, I served as the Race Committee for the Closing Day Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. The Closing Day Regatta is a staggered start race. This means that the slowest boats start first and are given a head start equal to their rating difference on the larger and faster boats. Calculating the starting advantage relative to the handicap requires knowing the length of the course. I had distributed to each boat an excel spreadsheet that gave starting times for any course length from 7 to 18 miles. The conditions were 15 - 20 knot Northwesterly winds, a clear blue sky, and temperatures in the 50s, so I decided on a 16 mile course with a nice windward starting leg, a 6-7 mile run down to Mark L, just East off Hole in the wall, a 6-7 mile beat back up to Stingray Point and a close reach into a finish off Stove Point. The fleet was notified to refer to column K on the spreadsheet, which had the starting times for 16 miles, and our first starter, Pelican Cay was off at 11:05am.

Morningtide was the next starter, 18 minutes later. It was Russ Collins' first start since the 2004 Wolf Trap race when remnants of Hurricane Ivan was an unwelcome visitor. Desperado, the Hinckley started next, followed by the PHRF-B and A boats, all in inverse order of rating. The last boats to start were 4 J-105s who crossed the line about 39 minutes after the first boat. In total, we had 19 boats at the starting line.

There were some equipment failures and withdrawals. Chilcoot lost a halyard shackle before the race and was unable to start. David Clark's Corryvrecken's jib halyard broke on the long beat and they were forced to withdraw. Galileo withdraw when they decided to take a short cut home after a beautiful day on the water.

At the finish, there were some surprises for the usual order of finish. Brad Davis and his J-105 Blade Runner took line honors. He left the other J-105s way behind and was way out in front. The next finisher was Neried who was racing PHRF-A (with a spinnaker). It was not that long ago that Neried was a non-spinnaker participant. On this day, they started behind every boat except Wavelength, La Maga, and the J-105s, and they passed every one except Blade Runner. Great job by our Fleet Captain Eric Powers and his crew!

Wavelength was third, Loose Cannon was fourth, La Maga was fifth, and the sixth boat was the second to start. Morningtide had held off every one else and finished 6th overall and first in Class B. Russ, we need to see you out on the race course more often - your performance was outstanding - or maybe your daughter Caroline deserves the credit!

The second B boat was Shenanigan sailed by Miles Booth and one other person! That is not easily done.

Ric Bauer brought beautiful Desperado home as the first non-spinnaker boat.

After the last finisher crossed the line a radio check found that Pelican Cay, the first starter was having a fine sail on the next to last leg, that all was well, and they granted us permission to head ashore and give out the trophies.

After the race, everybody thanked Cathy Clark, Brooks Zerkel, and me for setting a good course. Looking at their smiles, we could see that had all had a wonderful day sailing at FBYC on the Closing Day Regatta. We agreed to return to run an even better course next October.

Results are available at www.fbyc.net and all the pictures are posted on Flickr.