This weekend’s event, instituted about three years ago, was to encourage a larger fleet of class boats to come to Boothbay Harbor for a race. We were happy to keep the event going this year despite the issues of COVID-19. Another challenge was that the Friday weather prediction called for strong 20 plus knots of wind. The winds turned out to be very finicky and deviated from its normal southwesterly direction to the east.

Following the predicted wind direction, Caleb Gray, our proficient and reliable race committee, set up a course to sail easterly into Linekin Bay. However, shortly before we gathered to start the race, Mother Nature decided to shift the wind 40 degrees to the South, so Caleb skillfully realigned the course for the racers to head south.

The Boothbay Harbor One Design (BHOD) fleet was there to have a good run. It was great to see Chuck Race bring his completely restored Great Lakes 21, Delilah, to the event to start with the One Designs. She was the first of five Great Lakes 21s were built in Boothbay Harbor between 1939-1940 and shipped to Ohio where they became an active fleet. This boat was brought back to Maine several years ago and completely restored. It is similar to the Hodgdon 21 but carries the same sail area as the BHOD. However, there was a small time correction that had to be considered, so the length of the course was important to know to calculate the small variation in the boat’s speed.

In addition, when some boats race with a spinnaker there is also another calculated time correction. The rating of different boats is calculated by the differences between boat designs and sail area and translates into an allowance of seconds per mile/boat. Today was a 4.5-mile race. BHOD class boat, Zen, chose to fly her spinnaker and had 41 seconds added to her finish time. However, this time correction did not change the results, as she sailed a good race, winning by 5 minutes.

There was also fun in the Cruising Class race. Today was the final race of the year that allows spinnakers, and Zephyr wanted to put on a show. Three boats entered the Cruising Class. J/22, Deuces Wild walked away from the fleet with speed. Sapphire and Zepher duked it out for 2nd and 3rd place. Although Zepher sailed very well to the weather leg, Sapphire was able to catch and pass her downwind.

The top place winners were:

BHOD: 1st #56 Zen; 2nd Delilah 3rd # 52 Mumtaz; 4th Bittersweet

Cruising Class: 1st Deuces Wild; 2nd Sapphire; 3rd Zephyr

The next event in the “Summer of Sail 2020” series is the final race of the year. This race will be the second Classic race of the season. We hope to encourage all those boats with designs older than 25 years to come out and sail with us. We need to know enough about your boat to give you a PHRF rating so the time delayed start can be timed. A Pursuit start means you are given a time to cross the starting line that takes your boats speed into effect. The slowest boat goes first.

The details are all explained in the Sailing Instructions. For further information, sailing instructions and to register, go to the Regatta Management Solutions calendar https://www.regattaman.com/calendar.php, select the race date and click info or register, or go to www.bhyc.net/ /racing-and-regattas to check the time and to register for these races. All sailboats are welcome.