This morning’s gale mellowed to a fickle trickle throughout the day. The Sebago Open was sailed in some very light and variable stuff, with just enough of an occasional gust to keep us interested. The core group of Dave Fortier, Harry Richardson, Buchholz and Ramblin Roger managed five races; a few of them with Jim Gagnon (who won the super DN class), Tom Gloudemans, a mystery guy in a hot CSI boat, and maybe some others. There were a lot of boats cruising as well; I counted twenty sails at one point. The racers happily dodged the stalled cruisers punctuating the course.

After four races, Buchholz and Richardson were tied for first so it was proposed that the two of them have a two lap tie breaker. Fortier manned the finish in case it was close. The wind was still on coffee break, wandering around lost, but they had a start. Buchholz managed to make the windward mark first, but on the final downwind leg he was parked as Harry rounded the windward mark well wound up and going deep. With some serious sprints Buchholz managed to keep himself between Harry and the mark, so won the Regatta, and the coveted Doug Raymond built Sebago Open Trophy.

Congratulations also to Jeff Knapp for the teriffic job on his new Whizz #14, “Whizz-Bang, oops”. His son Kevin (?) joined him in a DN for the day. He was headed to work this morning when he noticed an e-mail about sailing today. He bagged work, loaded the boat and headed for the lake. A fine example for us all!

Lee and Karin had their usual sunset cruise as the wind offered us one for the road. It really came on nice as the day wound down, contrary to all the old fart predictions. We could barely see them on the far horizon as we broke down boats and loaded trailers. They brought back the nice flag that Jim Gagnon made to mark the pressure ridge crossing. He’ll be making a bunch more to disseminate throughout the fleet so there will always be a few on hand.

If he can have a few made in time for the annual CIBC Moosehead Long Way we’ll be able to mark pressure ridges as we cross them, helping to finding our way back. Every little bit helps on that vast panorama of springtime ice. Watch the weather, check the web cams, keep in touch. We can only have this much fun if there are many eyes on all conditions.

Thanks to everyone who showed up today, and if it turns out this was your last day of the season, then you couldn’t have picked a better one. Bravo!