Commentary by Walt Collins:

Believe it or not the winds Saturday were from 0-5 kts. The only problem with the 5 kt puffs is that they came from almost all directions. This was because they were being primarily by the formation of thermals. Whenever a bubble of warmer air would lift, any boats under the bubble would have no air. Then the surrounding air would move in the replace the lifting air from all directions. If you were able to avoid being directly under the thermal, but near it's edge you had wind. Boats were seen on the same heading but on different tacks, and the windward leeward course experienced windward and leeward portions on the same leg of the course. Many times boats that were trailing would catch a puff from behind, then charge and pass the current leaders. The process would then be repeated and the new leaders would be passed. The light and shifty experts like Craig, Mark, Joe and myself managed to watch the puffs making up and get to them fairly often. This meant we were able to stay near the front pretty consistantly even though the lead changed hands a lot. Luck did play an important role in the results on Saturday though.

Sundays winds were were more consistant except for along the weather shore. The weather mark was placed into these shifty winds to provide a fairly long leg even though the leg had to be across rather than along the river. In addition, placing the mark near the southern shore gave the spectators a better view of the racing activity, as well as opportunities to make many of the great pictures of the boats and racers. This did not really help the competition, but adds to the overall fun, which is an important feature of most of the CMBA races.

Craig Saunders sailed well and had good luck with the shifts on Saturday to capture the MOA title in his first race with the CMBA. Having a new MISTRAL in the light air certainly helped Craig also. In the more consistant breeze Sunday, Mark showed the good boat speed he had demonstrated at Portsmouth and Edenton to get two bullets. With a little help from Joe Bousquet, Randall Swan, Chris Harrell, Mike O'dell and myself, Mark's two bullets moved him past Craig to take the National Title.

Commentary, George Bailey:

The Vintage Race started in a light breeze Friday evening. It was George Albaugh vs. Greg Duncan. Greg got the start, since George thought the line was between the buoy about 75 feet off the dock and a buoy farther out, whereas it was between the dock and the nearer buoy. To express his sympathy for George, Greg snapped his tiller off. This gave the edge to George.

Saturday morning, 10:00 AM, no wind.

Eventually, a "slight" breeze came and went here and there. So 21 moths ventured out into the river. By the start, the breeze was up to 3-4 kts in patches. The trick was being in the patch. I decided to avoid the congestion on the starting line by convincing myself that the five-minute flag was the 10-minute flag. This worked well up until Chuck Higgins let me know that the gun we had just heard was the start, not the five minute warning. Oh well, at least it allowed me to get a better photo of the start. (I resisted the opportunity to use this solid photo technique in the remaining heats.)

The windward mark for heat one was just off Sarah and John Pugh's dock. At the windward mark the breeze was non-existent in patches 20 ft from areas where there was 1/2 kt or so. The wind this close to shore also was very shifty, with one moth getting a lift while a moth 20 feel away got headed. (Guess which moth I was!) This made for some interesting photo opportunities for Frank Murphy on the dock.

Eventually everyone got around the first mark and started drifting for 2nd. There was a lot of congestion at the second mark by the time that I got there, with moths doing 360's, bumping, rolling over backwards in the light air, and such. The fleet spread out a good bit by the finish, but at least by then the wind had come up a little.

The second heat was much the same, even though the first mark was moved South to accommodate a wind shift and the wind out in the river had come up a little. Again, the mark was close inshore and so it was very shifty and fluky at the mark. The wind came up a little running for 2nd, which made this heat more fun for some of us (those of us who do not drift well). After the finish of heat two we went in for lunch.

After lunch we started heat three in very light air. The fourth heat was the same, another drifter. Well, at least it wasn't raining!

At the starting line for heat five on Sunday we had a nice breeze. Heat five was short, since on the way out to the line there wasn't much wind. Heat six was longer, since the wind had come up. These two heats gave the most fun of the regatta, from my perspective (someone who hates drifters).

After heat six the wind came up even more, as is usual. We all went ashore for the trophy presentation. Erky Gregory's daughter Ginger made really great trophies for the eight separate races run in six (including Friday night) heats.

All in all, it was a great regatta.

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