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August 6, 2000

Dear friends in sailing,

Race number six was a virtual hurricane compared to number five. Still, the winds were variable and not to the cats’ liking, with plenty of holes and lots of opportunity to pass and change position. The single handers dominated the fleet--an indication of the variability of the conditions.

Lots of praying by the heavyweights on the last upwind leg for knockdown which never quite came. The wind did increase enough to interest and give everyone a chance to play their hunches. The race committee of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Guaraldo did an excellent job from "start" to finish in course selection and race control with long and true upwind legs.

GET TOGETHER AT MARK AND JANET EGGLETON'S FOLLOWING RACE SEVEN. Drinks and refreshments will be provided along with a lot of good natured ribbing. Feel free though to bring additional eats. It will be late in the day near dinner time.

Race number seven! Where has the time gone? We in education are in the last four weeks of our vacation.

Race highlights include:

- Tom Davis pre-race capsize antics, showing off his ability to right a cat solo much to the entertainment of everyone.

- Welcome home to Ian Cohen sailing for the first time this year in his dusted off "Doug’s" Laser.

- Chuck McClead leading all the cats from start to finish, the only cat to have little difficulty going through the islands. Must have been chasing white mice (JY’s and Capri’s) through all those wind holes.

- An outstanding showing again by the red Lightning of Tom Johnston and crew with THREE aboard and still managing to best most of the much lighter planing hulls. Is that third crew the engineer in charge motor operation?

- Great displacement hull start by the Barron and Eames teams. Everyone is doing a great job of staying out of the way for "other category" race starts. Thanks.

- Steady and consistently good job under varying conditions by Barry Cohen to not only beat son Ian but also to finish in the top three monohull. Still a little fight left in the old man hey, Ian.

- Doug Craib riding a chancy shoreline maneuver coming out of nowhere to post a victory in the planing hull category besting yours truly at the finish by two boat lengths. (You know your boat may be moored too close to my shore; it seems to be hitting the rocks frequently and taking on water.)

- Belated "Tip of the Week": Not only is it important to adjust your sail controls at the race start, but during the race as well. The varying conditions caught many of us off guard, and we forgot to loosen or tighten controls at various times.

Just a little reminder: GET TOGETHER AT MARK AND JANET'S FOLLOWING RACE SEVEN.

See you on the water,

Mike