“Don’t ever believe the weather reports,” is one of Jim Maivald’s favorite aphorism, especially when it come to sailing. “You can’t know what the weather is until you get to the harbor.”
If you believed the weather report for Saturday, May 8th, you would have thought there would be no wind and a long boring race to Winthrop harbor. But, you would have been wrong. The wind was blowing lightly from the northeast at 10am and kept building until start time. At 1100. the wind was at 4-6 knots from ENE.
The WYC Committee Boat was already on station by 1030 waiting for the fleet of racers. Unfortunately, it was a poor turnout for our first WYC Off-Shore race. Only three WYC racers appeared on the line. The first warning went off promptly at 1055. At 1100, the cannon sounded and the racers were off!
As we raced north the sun broke out of the overcast and the rest of the race was in bright sunshine that belied the chilly temperature. We passed east of the new Zion intake marker at over 5 knots.
Winds filled in nicely and we had nearly a record run to Winthrop. The first boat crossed the finish line at 12:32:52 for an average speed of over 4.9 knots.
The racers opened the patio at The Tropics restaurant in the Northpoint marina and had a great lunch before heading back. The sail back was just as fun but not as sunny.
Don’t miss our next Off-Shore Race, May 22 from Waukegan to Zion and back!
