The West Island Invitational Race:
Our 2024 West Island Invitational Race on Saturday, August 3rd was a rousing success thanks to the wind! There were heat advisories issued for the day but we had beautiful 10-14 kt Southwest winds and partly cloudy skies on the Bay for the noon start. Ten boats came out (8 monohulls, 2 multihulls) to enjoy SBCC's premier weekend race. We had non-spin & multihull classes again this year and the wind determined the "which way" question. South winds were predicted but with a steady southwest wind, 8 of the 10 boats chose the counter-clockwise course and headed up the West Channel. This proved to be the favored course this year. Most boats made Crazy Charlie in one tack and then enjoyed some great beam reach racing past Atlantique and Ocean Beach. The poles came out for the long downwind run from #19 to #9 at Hecksher Park. The final leg was an exciting drag race back to Bay Shore #10 mark and the finish in building winds. The race had some close competition between Rettsie & Shadow and Derailed & Bleu Moon. It took about 2.5 hours to complete the 15.7 nm course and the winds held up for some spirited sailing home.
A big thank you to Bill Wheeler and team for their professional RC duties and to John Davis for assisting Bill. It was great to see John at the start line again- I don't think he has missed a West Island race (either racing or RC) since joining the SBCC many years ago! I also want to congratulate first time West Island racers Todd & Pam McCarthy in Bleu Moon and Andy Mirchel in Galatea. Welcome guys! Todd has been racing as crew on Shadow and it was good to see them now racing their own boat.
Final Results, 2024 West Island Race:
Non-Spin-
1st place- Shadow
2nd place- Kickin' Back
3rd place- Rettsie
4th - Naughty Dog
5th- Derailed
6th- Galatea
7th- Bleu Moon
8th- Snoopy
MultiHull-
1st place- Trillium
2nd place- Getting There
Deale Trophy: Shadow