Strategy makes for thrilling Prevost race
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Peter Toby single-handedly skipped his way to a first-place finish on corrected time in the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club’s annual Round Prevost race.
Toby’s Naru was among 12 boats entered in the Oct. 4 event, held under bright sunshine and warm northwesterly winds.
“[The Round Prevost event] is a challenging tactical race where choice of direction, wind and tides can have a big effect on the outcome,” said Pete McGovern, the sailing club’s fleet racing captain.
Wind speeds for racers leaving a white-capped Ganges Harbour topped out at 15 knots.
“Caliente (Ole Andersen), wing on wing down the harbour kept up well with Oasis (Bob Jones) under spinnaker and Oasis chose to run down past the Channel Isles for an anti-clockwise circuit around Prevost. Electra (Roger Kibble), having also committed to a similar course, made a late decision to head for Captain Passage and the rest of the fleet followed as winds appeared to be stronger on the backside of Prevost,” wrote McGovern in his post-race report.
“Caliente and Electra entered the harbour first with Electra slightly ahead but Caliente having the better line,” McGovern said.
Steady winds allowed Caliente to proceed with minimal tacks and cross the finish line first.
All boats finished the course, with Tara’s Whisper (Mario Tello) crossing the line 80 minutes after Caliente to great cheers from the peanut gallery on the dock, McGovern added.
The top-three finishers, on corrected time, were Naru in 2:32:32, Kay D (Martin Herbert/Tony Meek) in 2:34:01, and Electra in 2:34:35.
“Ultimately, the direction probably had little bearing on which boat won, as the corrected times of the top six boats were within 10 minutes,” McGovern said.
“A fantastic day on the water and a rare race where conditions suited all the boats equally.”
The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club’s next official event is the Captain Passage Race on Sunday, Oct. 18.
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