May 15, 2013 Series 2  Race 3

Great wind, storms cleared out, another great Wednesday night for Sailboat Racing at Clear Lake. Several very close encounters at the starts and othjer issues partly because of the high wind, but mostly good, fast sailing in front of one of America's premier venues for watching sailboat racing. 53 boats on the lake and 5 on the bay.  Very good for an iffy weather day that turned out fantastic.  Everyone should get out for the LYC Shoe Regatta this weekend.  Three lines and fun for all.

May 8, 2013 Series 2 Race 2  Beautiful weather, Great wind and 60 boats on the lake (66 total, a new record for CLRA.  Fantastic results with at least two photo finishes and several sub ten second differentials.  Please check the results carefully as there were a couple of late corrections to the announced results.  Thanks again to Jim Wells for helping out with our on-shore commentary at Villa Capri.

A bit of explanation on our Bay racing.  We hold separate races on Galveston Bay for our J80 and Assymetrical Spinnaker class.  They run two races each night and the net result of those races is reported by place(1st, 2nd, 3rd...).  Because the assym class is PHRF Handicapped, we provide a detailed result sheet giving the times and corrected result.  We will continue to show only the summary results for the J80's.  Also note that the assym spinnaker class on Galveston Bay is open to all assym spinnaker boats, without limit.  J 122's anyone?

Note update to the Series One scoring in the Non-spin "A" fleet. Apologies to Glenn Ring for the scoring error.

May 1, 2013 Series 2 Race 1 Finally some good weather, with the only minor issue of an East wind, which results in our using the east-west courses.  This usually means long stretches of nothing happening in front of our viewing area at the beautiful Villa Capri.  Fortunately the boats spread out enough to keep it interesting, and the finishes bunched up to make it pretty interesting.  This was the beginning of series 2, and a few of the classes are getting serious about it. 59 total boats counting two classes racing over longer courses and more races out on Galveston Bay.  P;ease note the opportunity to come out and crew for one of the boats is open to all.  See the notices at the right of this page.  You may also consider chartering a Flying Dutchman Junior from Bay Access and joining in the fun.

This picture was the Championship Prize for 2012 and depicts the Champion Casey Lambert at the helm.  Robin Stone Collins provided the art work.  See her web site robinstonecollins.com for more info.

Thanks to Jim Wells for coming out and helping us with his insight for the commentary.

What started out to be a pretty rough day ended up flattening out and rewarding the RC's conservatism on the courses.  Originally North winds, bending sharpky East by race time, and thankfully not as cool as expected. Series One ends with a record 3 races under North-ish winds.  Final approaches to the finish line varied all over the map as the dying wind swirled around, causing some ugly tacking angles.  Next week starts Series 2.

We like to remind folks in the running for series and/or Season Championships (that's everyone, right?) that you must designate one alternate driver for the season before next weeks race for the races driven by that alternate to count toward your series and season Championship points. Boats in which a non-designated person is at the helm for two or more races in a series will not receive Series awards. Please encourage your friends and family to come out and watch.

A total of 53 lake boats and three bay boats makes it our best night so far.  The series one summary is posted for those who want to see the whole thing at once.

Back to normal (sorta) Pretty heavy winds, 14-18+, and drippy skies.  Series 1 Race 3 was really great fun.  Everyone got in multiple laps, including the novices and the C22's on the "Tour of the Lake" course.  We even had a good spectator crowd. The signal for life jackets was up and a boat was DSQ for ignoring it.  One of the FJ's dumped, resulting in a couple of very tired and wet young sailors after the  usual "keystone Kops" scramble to get the boat back upright. All parties present and accounted for. And well enough to finish the race.

btw, We need a spotter for the commentary for a few weeks till I get my eyes fixed.  Preference is to get a sailor who is familiar with our operation and who can SEE.

OK Now we understand all that talk about frontal passage. 75 degrees ahead of it and 55 behind it.  And the second week of North-ish winds.  Scott beneficially got all 30 boats off the water quickly, and we huddled in Casa Mia for the first awards in forever to happen before 9 PM.  And we will all remember a certain Red boat raising, lowering and re-raising the largest protest flag I've ever seen to mark the site of a J22 mid-start conference.  Overall, the evening was a reminder about our philosophy in CLRA.  Boats are waterproof, and miserable is not dangerous. So barring lightning, low water or the race committee needing to sort their sock drawer, the Show goes on at Clear Lake on Wednesday nights.  Hey, I understand the temperature will get back to nearly 80 by Saturday, so we may thaw out a couple of RC folks by next week..

About protests. If you are involved in a protest, Good sportsmanship and Fair Sailing require you to go to the Villa Capri dock after finishing to allow for penalty acceptance or arbitration.

Just a reminder, Any time you spot something on this web site that you disagree with, usually something in th results, Please let us know.  Just click on "contact us" in the top menu which will automatically send an email to Scott and John.  Most of the time we will make the update if it is reasonable.   Sometimes there may be a delay while we confirm.  Overall, the excellent work by our on-boat RC (Thank you) makes this an infrequent happenstance.

Talk about shaking out the cobwebs.  Suffice it to say that our Race Committee struggled with adversity on almost every front.  We sincerely apologize for the bobbles and we will definitely do better (one of the positive consequences of not being able to do any worse)  The good thing is that we did hold the races on the lake and the Villa Capri bartenders distinguished themselves yet again.

Good luck to all who are sailing the Elissa Regatta this weekend.

We will be back at it again next week with a much improved operation.  Many thanks to participants and sponsors who make it all happen on Clear Lake every Wednesday night from now till October.

As a result of an inquiry, we added details of the bay courses to the SI's.  Yes boys and girls, tomorrow is the start of a new season.  Assymmetrical spin boats will be out on the bay where they can stretch their legs, and all others will be on the lake.  There will be commentary at the Villa Capri and great viiewing conditions as well as bar service for spectators.   All lake boats will pass within a few yards of the dock at Villa Capri.  See you there.

Kelly McGuire - don't you just love him!!!  Great party and Skipper's Meeting.

Thank you Vince Morvillo and Sea Laske Yacht Sales for the beer and a glimpse at the new Beneteau 20.

Scott announced a couple of changes to the SI's, which have been updated on-line.  Mostly that PHRF Spin (Symmetrical) will be on the lake. As of this afternoon, the official SI is the one on the web.  Also, Please sign up on-line if you intend to race.  Thanks.  See you April 3 for Race 1 Series 1.

NOR and SI are posted in Event info Section.  Note. There are changes!! Scott will make announcements tonight at the Skipper's meeting. Be there.  Hard copies will be available.

Come one come all, to the 2013 Wednesday Night Sailboat Racing Skipper's Meeting.  Get registered (last chance for reduced pre-season annual entry fees).  Pick up your copy of the 2013 Sailing Instructions, Course sheets, and see who and what is new this year.

Just booked Kelly McGuire To play at the Kick-Off party, March 27th @ 6pm.

Next seminar 3/13/2013 and will be about courses, some of which are changed, a discussion of "local knowledge, and a discussion of the new protest process we will use this year.

All registrations require entering the info on the web site and PAYMENT.

First Seminar this week. Jim Tichenor and Tony Nunes will discuss the basic Rules and what has changed for 2013-2016.  Some of the changes affect the most important and frequently protested rules of our game, those which apply at marks and obstructions.  Bring all your concerns and questions, and let's have a safe, fair and fun new racing season.

2013 Schedule Rev 1 is up. Check it out.

I will be archiving 2012 information soon.  Copy down anything you need to keep, such as results for use in PHRF appeals.

Because of hackers, all user input such as voting, registration, etc is shut down until Scott wants it reopened in the Spring.  If you want to sail, wait or send Snail Mail to Scott.  To crew, go to gbca.org and go to the crew list part of the Forums.  We intend to have Winter Seminars, see the posted schedule.