Radiance brings home the Silver in

First White Sails Race of Season

The first in a series of WHSYC sponsored white sails races were held Saturday June 3^rd in Seward under bright sunny skies and perfect 15-20 knots of breeze out of the south.  Radiance was crewed by Scott as helmsman, Grant, Jeff and Peter as cockpit trimmers and Annette,  Joy and Elanor as glamorous rail-meat and Trish as chief photographer.

Being the fastest rated boat on the course, our handicap put us last in the staggered start and also made us the committee boat.  Annette did a fine job with Grant keeping track of times to start and all boats got off the line with only a few late. 

Radiance and her crew showed their stuff as we passed all the boats and were about to round the mark when our genoa blew out on a tack.  We ended up tacking the final yards to the mark under mainsail alone and Williwaw screamed by.  After rounding the mark, the crew handled the sail change and got the blade up just after being passed by Bob on Afirmance.  But it did not take long to gain another position and Radiance squeaked out a well-earned second place behind Williwaw.  The second race began about 30 minutes later and after everyone had a chance to celebrate with a beer.  Some of the boats got better starts on the second race and Radiance ended up starting about 18 seconds late, but not bad.  We were pointing well with the blade, but never having flown the sail in race mode, we were struggling with lead car positions.  A couple tacks from the mark we were on a converging course with Williwaw on starboard tack.  Meet mild Linda, yelled across the water “Starboard!” and realizing we were not going to cross in front, we ducked behind and shot out the other side, though lost a lot of boat speed in the process.  But we got a great photo. 

We finally got our jib lead car right just about the time we rounded the windward mark.  Bob on Afirmance was close, but we easily slid under him and ended the second race with a good solid second place.  3-cheers for the crew of Radiance….a great crew and a great time!