Hudson Long Distance Regatta, 2010

This year the race was wet, cool, windy and fast. There were also less registered entrants than usual. In fact, the numbers seem to have been falling off for some years now, which is a pity. I remember start lines that boasted nearly 150 boats in the past, and boats sailing up the lake seemingly "wall to wall". However, the racing was still exciting and riskier than normal this year. Exciting with the wind and the gusting up to 30 knots, and risky as there were many yachts with equipment failures that had to retire from the race, including one Shark with a broken mast, and several with rigging failure. This type of wind and racing calls for boats to be well prepared. There were 24 DNFs!

One interesting note, Hudson decided to use a small yacht at one end of the finishing line this year, in place of the expected larger committee boat (remember Costalot?) and at least several finishers did not notice this and assumed that the race was being finished from the shore, hence passing on the wrong side of the mark.

One boat was so annoyed, that on re-rounding it seems that they decided to move the pin further upstream, much to the consternation of all!!

A yacht tries to move the finishing mark

Most of the Sharks that survived the conditions finished fairly well together, and winning out on handicap, leading the pack along with the expected Etchells, whereas the Tanzers were split up having a best overall position of 21st place. Those that raced with the jib did fairly well, but those that chose to use a larger sail broached their way up the lake to attain a dismal finishing time. Lesson for the Tanzer owners, "Don't over-canvass your boat on long distance races."

The results can be found on the Hudson Yacht club site, here.