Saturday morning brought sunshine and cool temperatures in the low 70s. The wind was 5-12 MPH out of the NNW to NE. Race 1 was an Olympic. Those on the left side of the course generally enjoyed some nice left shifts, while those on the right occasionally got a righty. Working the left side of the course, crossing to the right when you had the left shift, paid big for 652, H-42, and H-20. The first reach was too tight for spinnakers for most of the way, although H-637 made a big gain by setting around the windward mark, and sailing the shifts on the reach. The wind was just a little too far left at the gybe mark as they tried to shoot it. Even after dropping the spinnaker, and gybing/tacking around to make the mark, they still made tracks compared to their position at the windward mark. The rest of the race still had big shifts with puffs and lulls coming out of nowhere. Changing gears was the key to keeping the boat going fast up the course.

Race 2 followed immediately as a W 2 1/2. The starting area was moved a little east to account for the wind trying to stay in a left mode. Most of the boats found the pin end of the starting line a popular place to be, resulting in an individual recall, and a few of us unable to make the pin (which was a committee boat). Two-thirds of the way up the first leg, the wind started going right in a big way and with a little more pressure. H-216 and H-637 made huge gains and were just about to round the windward mark when the race was abandoned due to a procedural error. Although a few were disappointed, especially since the top boats from race 1 were back in the pack, it was better than having the race thrown out after it was completed. So we sailed back downwind and began a new starting sequence. With the righties now becoming more common than the lefties, starting at the committee boat and playing the right side seemed to work the best on the windward leg. H-658 and 652 broke from the pack and rounded the windward mark with a decent margin. Downwind seemed to bring very local large shifts. Near the end of the leeward leg, the wind swung pretty far to the right, making the next windward leg a long starboard until the wind started shifting again halfway up. Downwind there were again localized areas with radically different wind strength and direction. Finding these (or more likely finding yourself suddenly in them) produced some big gains as the wind would swing way forward, giving you a nice beam reach while those 100 yards away were on the same compass course but going low and slow, or even on the other gybe. Just before the leeward mark, the wind went into major squirrel mode, as boats passed and were passed. On the final upwind, you had to keep the boat going thru the wild oscillations. After five hours on the water, the famished sailors broke for lunch and much talk about "can you believe what the wind did when we..."

With the forecast for Sunday being for very little wind, we went back out for Race 3 (W 2 1/2) in the late afternoon. The wind seemed to be a little steadier in direction than in the earlier races, but still had some good puffs and lulls. The right side of the course again paid on the first windward leg, but the race leaders were not all that far ahead of a big pack of boats. Most of the boats played the right (looking upwind) side of the course on the first run because of a right shift. 3/4 of the way to the leeward mark, the wind started shifting back to average, which helped to split the clumps of boats up. The next lap was the same; keep the boat going thru the fake headers, tack on the real one. On the final upwind leg, H-658 was in first with H-632 to leeward in second and 652 to windward in third. Just short of the port tack layline, H-658 tacked off to the right and fell into a hole. H-632 and 652 continued to beyond the port layline to stay in the wind before tacking over. The wind decided to call it a day, shutting down as the fleet neared the finish line. H-632 kept the boat moving to take the gun, H-658 got a little breeze to come in second. 652 held onto third while covering H-216 and H-20.