More on the Chili Bowl

Hi Ralph,

The wind was certainly up there for the chilli bowl. As we started after the Shark (Don Osborne), we more or less maintained out time behind Don for the first leg, but Don steadily pulled away and was miles ahead of us at the finish. That left us sailing alone until the last two legs when David Wiesenthal, in Special Effect, began to get close. As we rounded the last mark, we knew that he was going to catch us soon, so we raced for the finish as agressively as we could. As we headed for the finish, David got closed and closer until at one point my fore-deck crew remarked "He really should clean his anchor, it's filthy!". Special effect is a huge boat (>40') and pure beauty to behold when under sail. She started to pass us to leeward before long. It was quite a sight and a thrilling experience to be less than 15 feet from a boat that big (and her wake). Our crews had fun shouting various pirate like things at each other, but alas David could not be fended off and I was left bouncing in her wake. David reached the finish a couple of minutes before I did. The story has a happy ending for me though as David was OCS. So I wound up finishing in 2nd place overall. If David had not been over early, then we would have been very much closer to the finish when he caught up to me. It would have been a thrilling, down to the wire, finish. Maybe next year.

John