Caught in Traffic Wins Sheldon Clark

A beautiful day produced some very tight racing among the J/105 Fleet in Saturday's Sheldon Clark regatta.  Caught in Traffic (3-1-2 with a total of 6 points) captured the crown, edging Sealark (7 pts), Rocking Horse (8 pts.) and The Asylum (9 pts). Just 36 seconds separated the 4 boats in the second race of the day.  Caught in Traffic edged Sealark by two seconds to take the bullet.  A half minute later, Rocking Horse scored third by two seconds over The Asylum.  That proved to be the deciding margin in the regatta. 

In the first race, Sealark started on port tack in an attempt to take advantage of a perceived right shift, but failed to consolidate.  The left corner paid off in better wind speed and boats inside gained when they were lifted (on port board) halfway up the course.  By the second time the boats were at the top mark, Rocking Horse and The Asylum were battling for the top spots and Sealark was engaged with Traffic on the final downwind leg.  The boats were evenly matched, but Sealark suffered from a straggling T-10 stealing its wind ... and wound up losing its inside overlap on Traffic near the finish line.  A late attempt to gybe away for clear air proved unsuccessful as Traffic was able to stoke down at the committee boat, crossing in third place.

The second race saw all the boats hitting the line on starboard with decent speed under a stronger wind.  Sealark went to the left side with most of the fleet and rounded the top mark sandwiched between The Asylum and Traffic.  An early gybe away paid off big as the wind clocked rightward, letting Sealark stoke down toward the bottom mark.  Sealark again went to the left and maintained its lead, rounding the top mark ahead of the fleet.  A couple of conservative moves trying to protect against an adverse wind shift proved to be counterproductive as Traffic and the fleet closed in on the last downwind leg.  A close port/starboard crossing before the finish line had Sealark ahead of Traffic, but the wind would shift further right and permit Caught in Traffic to stoke down at the pin and gain the win.

The final race saw even stronger winds and the RC called for five-legged race.  Sealark's upwind performance allowed for a finish of just over a minute ahead of Traffic, with The Asylum another 40 seconds after that and Rocking Horse another 50 seconds back.  Complete results are below.  Note that ALL the boats are separated by around 1/2 of a knot in boat speed performance over the race course -- in all three races.  An excellent way to end the racing season.  See you at the party!

Race 1, Date: 17 Sept 2016, Starting Time: 10:10:00, Distance: 4.0 Status: Preliminary
Boat		Finish						Fleet 28/46
Sail#	Name	Score	Time	Type	Elasped	Corrected	Speed	Rank	Speed	PHRF
444	Rocking Horse	1	11:27:14	Finished	01:17:14	01:17:14	3.11	no rating
673	The Asylum	2	11:27:36	Finished	01:17:36	01:17:36	3.09	no rating
359	Caught in Traffic	3	11:30:08	Finished	01:20:08	01:20:08	3.00	no rating
349	Sealark	4	11:30:51	Finished	01:20:51	01:20:51	2.97	9	3.20	87
243	Phantom	5	11:38:27	Finished	01:28:27	01:28:27	2.71	no rating
60	Striking	6	11:40:37	Finished	01:30:37	01:30:37	2.649	22	2.83	87
6 Entries, 6 Came to Starting Area, [Series]

Race 2, Date: 17 Sept 2016, Starting Time: 12:10:00, Distance: 5.0 Status: Preliminary
Boat		Finish						Fleet 28/46
Sail#	Name	Score	Time	Type	Elasped	Corrected	Speed	Rank	Speed	PHRF
359	Caught in Traffic	1	13:16:01	Finished	01:06:01	01:06:01	4.544	no rating
349	Sealark	2	13:16:03	Finished	01:06:03	01:06:03	4.542	8	5.10	87
444	Rocking Horse	3	13:16:35	Finished	01:06:35	01:06:35	4.51	no rating
673	The Asylum	4	13:16:37	Finished	01:06:37	01:06:37	4.50	no rating
243	Phantom	5	13:18:40	Finished	01:08:40	01:08:40	4.37	no rating
60	Striking	6	13:26:58	Finished	01:16:58	01:16:58	3.90	20	4.30	87
6 Entries, 6 Came to Starting Area, [Series]

Race 3, Date: 17 Sept 2016, Starting Time: 14:00:00, Distance: 6.25 Status: Preliminary
Boat		Finish						Fleet 28/46
Sail#	Name	Score	Time	Type	Elasped	Corrected	Speed	Rank	Speed	PHRF
349	Sealark	1	15:17:11	Finished	01:17:11	01:17:11	4.86	4	5.51	87
359	Caught in Traffic	2	15:18:12	Finished	01:18:12	01:18:12	4.80	no rating
673	The Asylum	3	15:18:52	Finished	01:18:52	01:18:52	4.75	no rating
444	Rocking Horse	4	15:19:42	Finished	01:19:42	01:19:42	4.71	no rating
243	Phantom	5	15:23:05	Finished	01:23:05	01:23:05	4.51	no rating
60	Striking	6	15:25:41	Finished	01:25:41	01:25:41	4.377	20	4.89	87
6 Entries, 6 Came to Starting Area, [Series]

Boat		Num of Throw Outs		Race Results   ( 0 races canceled. 0 races canceled. )
		none		Sheldon Clark Offshore
				Sept 17
Sail#	Name	Pos	Score	1	2	3
359	Caught in Traffic	1	6.0	3	1	2
349	Sealark	2	7.0	4	2	1
444	Rocking Horse	3	8.0	1	3	4
673	The Asylum	4	9.0	2	4	3
243	Phantom	5	15.0	5	5	5
60	Striking	6	18.0	6	6	6