Nine valiant Mothists braved a 100% chance of rain forecast and rigged up at NYCC for the Labor Day Race. It was drizzling during the rig-up and skippers meeting, but the skies lightened slightly just before the first start Saturday. Mark Saunders had great boat speed with his new sail. Joe and Walt gave chase, but were mainly dueling it out and trading places for second all day. Joe initiated a tacking duel to slide by Walt right at the finish in the first race. Walt returned the favor by splitting tacks on the last beat to sneak by Joe in the 4th. Both of these finishes were by less than a boat length. Lizzie Gladney is a junior sailor from NYCC and Joe had re-built a Maser for her. Winds were light and variable, around 10 knots, but with holes and occasional puffs around 15. Lizzie showed good speed, especially downwind, assisted by her light weight. We plan to see her at the Nationals. Ladies and Juniors....Watch out! George Albaugh was in Aftermath because he had to use his carrying space for Flipper and to bring down a Mistral from Scott Sandell for Dan and Brett Winters. After 4 races Saturday Mark was in a strong 1st, with Joe and Walt tied for 2nd. Lizzie was in 4th followed by Eric, who surpassed his dad when Aftermath's mast came crashing down in a puff as George was nipping at Walt's heels in the 4th race. The rain held off Saturday until we got the boats ashore and unrigged for the night, in spite of some thunder. Sunday opened up with more light rain, and an absent Joe, Al, and Randy. Seems Joe had heard a rumor that races were going to start at 11 AM, while the rest of us stuck to the published schedule of 10 AM. Al and Randy opted to stay home where it was dry. After the overnight rainwater was dealt with, rigging-up commenced. By the time the boats were rigged, Bill offered Memory Lane to George because Joe had not returned with the repaired Aftermath. Once again, the rain tapered off before the boats hit the water. Joe did arrive during the first race and rigged up Try-umph. Bill opted to stay onshore, even though the rain had stopped. More shuffling of boats followed as indicated on the score sheet. The first line is the official score, but I added the unofficial numbers just for fun. The net effect was for Joe to join George below the two juniors, but a good time was had by all. After the 3 races Sunday in 10-15 knots, the fleet got ashore just as the skies really opened up. Everyone unrigged in a downpour and rinsed everything off in the rainwater. The rain backed off a little while the boats were loaded up. Just after the awards, the clouds parted and blue skies and sun were seen for the first time over the weekend.