Lake Champlain yacht club
Lake Champlain Yacht Club
Shelburne, Vermont
Normally I trim main, but for this Wednesday night racing, I passed off the main sheet and picked up my camera. I was hoping for a real blow, but as with most August nights on Lake Champlain, we got light air.
We started to leeward of the big pile at the committee boat and being the fastest boat in our fleet we slowly passed everyone, mostly to leeward because there was an outside lifting breeze that the inside boats just didn’t have. In these conditions the whole crew is on the leeward rail for most of the night. It was a short, two-leg race, and I was able to get inside photos of the only mark rounding, with golden sunlight and spinnaker colors reflecting on the still water. We rounded with speed, jibed, poped our A kite and lead all the way to the finish.
The wind finally filled in and everyone got their kites up and full. Then it was one short leg to the finish as the sun set on Shelburne Bay. Being such a perfect night, we sailed around had a beer or two and watched the rest of the fleet cross the line.
—Paul O. Boisvert
