Background: The Tour du Lac is one of the major races of our club. A 20 miler up both major forks of Lake Oroville. Top prize is a trophy with a large Viking sailing vessel with the wind blowing the pendant on top of the mast in exactly the opposite direction that the wind is blowing the sail. Heck of a wind shear 30’ or so up!

The day: The race had been postponed from the prior week due to heavy winds. Naturally, for this weekend the wind was predicted from light to non-existent! Guess due to the last minute change in schedule and the light wind prediction club members stayed away. The only participants were Mark Barr and his sons and Paradise Found with me (Ranger Paul), Gisela, Stinkpot Mike and our new crewmember, Angela Lopez. Bruce and Kevin were out also in aBruce’s Precision 16 (?) (Don’t now exactly which model Precision he has) but were not racing due to time commitments. They kind of tagged along most of the way.

Mark had moved the start time up because of the length of the race and encouraged everyone to be on time. Our day started auspiciously with Gisela and I oversleeping and getting up 3 minutes before Angela knocked on the door! Drat! You’d think at 62 I’d of learned how to set an alarm clock. I set the alarm time but forgot to pull out the button!

Mark waited for us to get to the start line…45 minutes late…probably because if he had started on time he would have been the only one on the lake! We resorted to using the iron sail so we weren’t an hour late! There was even a little wind! Casual start with just the two of us…“You ready to start?” “Yes” “K, lets go!” We blasted upwind towards the green bridge in a pleasant breeze…me choosing a different course hoping for better wind and a chance to eat Mark in his faster boat. Worked pretty well…I was hot on his heels as we passed the point and sailed into the Sargasso Sea of Lake O. Man…the Sargasso was really BIG! (The Sargasso Sea of lake O extends from Bidwell launch out towards the main part of the lake and towards the green bridge.) I have never seen the Sargasso this BIG with defined wind lines around it and on the other side of the green bridge! I finally realized that this was a fun race with only two of us so I shouted: “This is stupid…let’s quit this leg and go up the other fork where the wind is.” Took Mark at least 4 nanoseconds to agree to the new plan so we both started ghosting towards the wind line…realizing the first one there would simply blast away from the other. Actually came out pretty even, Mark having a slight edge… We were off…until the wind quit while it clocked 180 degrees! Had enough brains to eat lunch while becalmed.

Finally the wind came back. A nice comfortable breeze…probably 10 mph. Finally…we could launch the spinnaker. Mike drove while I played bowman. Bet yet for us learning how to tame this beast. Even though the mark was dead downwind, Mark was flying his symmetrical spinnaker and Steve/Kevin were double winging, we zigzagged downwind as dictated by our a symmetrical spinnaker and started to catch up. We really started to cook! Caught up with Bruce/Kevin, jibed, then got into trouble. Had an accidental jibe the other way while I managed to hopelessly tangle the lines! Drat! Pulled the sock down and gave up. Didn’t make much difference though as the wind started to die and was not enough to keep the kite flying.

It was pleasant day weather wise for sailing without jackets and not sweating our butts off. Wind: some wind, no wind, enuf wind to have all four of us on the weather rail, pleasant lazy sailing wind…some of each.

Wind started to croak on the north fork so I honked my horn at Mark and signaled we should turn back…which he did. This gave me quite a lead but the Thistle is faster than my boat upwind and particularly faster in light air. So we beat back to the main part of the lake with Mark gradually gaining and finally catching up and finally pulling away. Drat! I beginning to hate that pink boat butt!

But, I figured when we made the starboard turn out of the fork into the main part of the lake, I could launch my kite and broad reach to the finish…totally eating him! Naturally the wind clocked around 90 degrees when we got to the main part of the lake! Drat! An upwind fight to the finish where Mark has a significant advantage. I got out tacticed on this final leg with Mark choosing one side of the lake while I chose the other. I had seen Paul Malcon get almost 90 degrees of lift on my side a couple weeks ago and honk to the finish line. Well, the lift was not there and Mark ate me. Getting late, tired, good day sailing so we resorted to the iron sail.

Overall it was a really changeable, fun and relaxed day sailing. We all had a ball! We switched around driving, playing bowman, and playing mainsheet trimmer. Now, provided I can launch my asym, my boat is faster downwind and on a broad reach than Mark’s…while he has a significant advantage in light air and upwind. One would think that 50 percent of the time, the advantage would be mine while the other 50% of the time the advantage would be Mark’s! Not so! Like, we beat upwind on the first leg, got the use the kite a little towards the North fork, had to beat back down the north fork, THEN beat back to the finish! Having the wind clock 180 then clock 90 to Mark’s advantage just doesn’t seem fair…although he did set the course, didn’t he! Hmmmm…

Mark declared we were the winners as we kept unexpectedly catching up with him. Course an equally valid explanation is that Kelly told him to get that giant trophy thing out of their house! Regardless, we judged we had sailed a pretty good race and our practice sessions are paying off. We’re getting a lot tougher! Plus the latest Portsmouth handicap with spinnaker for my boat is 86.5 instead of the 83 it used to be. Look out dudes…

From L. to R. are Mike Maddox, Gesila & Paul Ritchie and Angela Lopez.
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