This weekend was the Summer Sailstice. We went to the 18th annual Toilet Paper Regatta at Woodward Reservoir. Early Saturday morning we showed up at the lake and got the boat rigged. Me made a few adjustments and put the boat in the water. Daisy and I went for a sail and made use of the puffy wind. We would go from double trapped to almost nothing at all. We made our way to the dam and then turned and set the chute. It was a slow ride till we found some pressure. We would gain speed and get deep then sail back out of the pressure and slow down again. We threw in a couple gybes and were set up in good pressure. We had a good ride to the bottom of the lake and put the chute away. We did another lap of the lake and then went back to the beach for some lunch and more adjustments.
With the wind gusty and not steady we decided to move the race till Sunday. I was asked if I could take a fellow sailor and a ride. He had never flown a chute on a cat so we took off and did a couple laps of the lake. He was pretty fired up about flying the chute and said he may get one for his 5.8. There were over 20 boats on the beach ranging from the Laser to the Tiger. Most were the Hobie 16's and 18's and people were running up and down the lake all day. As the evening began to progress everyone made their way to prepare for the pot luck dinner.
The meal was wonderful with many choices to fill your stomach. Salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, beef, chicken, pork and even some cookies were all available. As the dinner ended the there was cake and ice cream to celebrate Mikey and Tracy's birthdays. We had a very light and tasty white cake, and a delicious rum cake with 2 choices of ice cream. There were also pink lemonade cupcakes if you preferred. After dinner and dessert we all gathered around a couple camp fires for some talk and fun. Then as the night went on people began clear out and to go to sleep.
Sunday morning saw a wonderful pot luck style breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, peppers, fruit, rolls, and tortillas were all served and more than enough for everyone. As breakfast finished we called our fleet meeting and discussed business for the month. We then set the rules for the 18th annual Toilet Paper Regatta. This is a fun regatta we do every year as a fun thing for those who normally don't race and those of us that do race to just have some fun.
We took off from the beach in a staggered start Le Mans style. We took off last as we were one of the faster boats. The wind was still puffy so you had to make the most of the wind when it was there. We took off on a nice starboard tack to the other side of the lake. We then tacked and lost the wind shortly after completing the tack. We slowly began creaping up the lake then all the sudden the wind hit quickly from a bad angle. Up and over we went. We got the boat back over after a couple minutes and kept on moving to the windward mark. We set the chute and made our way down to the leeward mark. We were third to make the bottom and then a reach over to the finish. Congrats to Ben for the nice Win on the H-16 and Mark second on the H-18.
I then took some time on the beach to change out some rivets that had some play in them. We took another ride up and down the lake and then began take down. People put away their boats and cleaned up our camping area. Goodbye's were said and plans for the next time were made.
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