1997 North American Championships

It's a good thing Snipers know how to party.

As Henry Filter put it, "We stand around in the parking lot and drink coffee
in the morning, then stand around in the parking lot and drink beer in the
afternoon."  Life stories were told this weekend that there had never been
time (or interest in) before.

Friday started out with a promising light northerly, the remnants of a front
that got pushed east by a high pressure system that squatted, breeze-free,
over Oakville for the weekend.  Organizers had kindly delayed the start till
noon to permit people to show up Friday morning, and that was the first death
knell.  By the time the gun went, the wind had vacated, leaving only a
general recall and a few sweating crews who had been scared into their
drysuits by the water temp.  So we sat around, learned (again) all the
comfortable (or not) seating options in a Snipe, played Snipe Tag (with a
tennis ball), and socialized.  (If only we'd known how much time there would
be for that, we wouldn't have bothered.)  

Around 1:30 a promising southerly filled, but by the time another general
recall sounded, it was gone again.  The RC was overheard remarking soon after
that, "we'll have to wait until 2:30 to send them in, because we've only got
two kegs."  At around four a light southerly filled in again, which was
ignored in favor of Canadian Ale.

Then the party at the Haines' house, complete with the blender for those who
were tired of beer, and delicious ham and salads.  More socializing and much
talk of who would've won the starts if they had gone off.

Saturday:  NO WIND.  Postponement.  Stood around and drank coffee and ate
donuts and bagels.  Out to the race course around noon in a nice southerly,
which filled and ebbed with alarming irregularity.  Those who figured out
early to tack for pressure and not for angle were the victors.  Henry
Filter/Lorie Stout figured it out the best and scored a bullet.  But hey, we
all figured, this is only the beginning.  Little did we know that the regatta
was already half over.

The wind died a bit more for the second race, leaving bigger holes and fewer
puffs.  Filter/Stout followed Charlie/Michele Bustamante to the weather mark,
but also followed them into a gybe which turned out to be a large mistake.  A
puff filled to the left, rewarding those that had gone straight.  Bustamantes
had such a huge lead they still finished first, but ashore they discovered
that their third from the first race had turned into an OCS and they weren't
leading the regatta after all.

Saturday's party at the Yacht Squadron was definitely won by the green can
and the Argentines  (even though they left early for a "club".)  They must've
known better than the rest of us, who were scared into early beds by the 9 am
warning gun for Sunday.  But it was the same drill, except with hangovers;
coffee in the parking lot, this time in the rain.  Finally, at noon (after
many folks had already started packing) three guns went off, which didn't
even bring the wind in.  But the final bottle of rum and the blender probably
brought out any remaining hot air.

Two light air races were all that was managed, even over three days of
valiant attempts.  A more complete report will follow (mostly social
commentary, since there was so little racing) but here are the raw results:

1.  George Szabo/Carol Newman         2   2           4
2.  David/Barbie Tillson              4   4           8
3.  Henry Filter/Lorie Stout          75  8           8.75
4.  John MacRae/Barb Evans            8   3           11
5.  Hal Gilreath/Alan Carscaddon      6   6           12
6.  Scott Nixon/Sam Rosemont          3   10          13
7.  Fred Rozelle/Jan Rozelle          9   5           14
8.  Wade Edwards/                     10  7           17
9.  Edvardo Fumagallo/   (ARG)        7   11          18
10. Agustin Zabalua/   (ARG)          5   14          19

Carol Newman