Racing for Turkeys

The Turkey Bowl was a success as always. Indeed more boats than usual appear to have raced. This is a fun regatta, and beyond the usual racers, a good number of cruisers were on the course as well. It is a lot of fun. Rather than the usual up and down racecourse, we are sent up and down river and across too. The wind was very light and so it was a bit of a crap shoot for some boats. For example if you were trying to work your way against the current when the wind got pretty wispy, you were in bigger trouble than the faster boats who were already around the mark and going downriver. If you got around the downriver mark, and to the shore quickly you got a little more breeze to carry you along, than those following later, who could not make headway to shore. On the other hand, the breeze eventually filled back across the river carrying all boats.

Despite all the variables of course good racers almost always do well. This race was no exception, with the very formidable Rahn father and son taking first place in their Shark, Eclipse. I thought it was very exciting to see the young Lowthers come in second place in the family's Kirby 25 (picture here by Heather Deeks, click to blow up and check out the grins, life is good!), triumphing over the exceptional sailing skills of his father in the Etchells, who came in third.

The race course of the Turkey bowl overlapped with the Firebals and Lasers holding their own races as well. Alas, so be it if we all insist on racing the same day. Better that, than not racing!

Many turkeys were raffled off, post-race, and the higher one placed, the more raffle tickets awarded. A lot of hot turkey sandwiches slathered in gravy were washed down with cold beer.