Hughes and Tsuha Lead

Day 2 of the Farr 40 North American’s dawned bright and clear, in marked contrast to the first days racing. The only similarity was a persistent northerly wind that continued to whip up Lake Michigan into a choppy, bumpy ride.

If anyone had thought of lake sailing as dull and boring, today’s racing should set that misconception aside. It was about the hottest most exciting sailboat racing in the country made more interesting by a large bank of clouds that rolled in just before the start of the first race. The dark storm clouds lent an ominous atmosphere to the racecourse while on land the city remained bathed in bright sunlight.

The offshore storm clouds made it difficult for the race committee to set a fair course as the clouds first pulled the wind more into the east, and then backed off letting the wind swing back into the north. Patience paid off and the first race of the day, race 4 for the regatta got off to a clean start. The whole fleet was fully powered up with lee rails buried and crews straining to hike their weight as far to windward as possible.

Day two ended with a new overall leader. Bob Hughes and Wally Tsuha claiming the top spot with an 8 point cushion over Richard Grunsten’s Voodoo. Samba Pi Ti (John Kilroy) was disqualified in a protest in race 6 and drops back to fourth overall. Brack Duker’s Revolution from California YC in Marina del Rey is third. Two races are scheduled for today.

Results:

1B Hughes & W Tsuha17 pts
2Richard Grunsten25 pts
3Brack Duker26 pts
4John Kilroy34 pts
5Bill Ziegler40 pts
6Phil Dowd44 pts
7Borys Jarymowycz47 pts
8Helmut Jahn48 pts
9Tom Neill53 pts
10Charles Tomkins54 pts