Dix Hills Model Yacht Club

Raleigh, North Carolina

The Triangle Cup EC-12 regatta, the second in the Dixie Cup series was held at the beautiful Lake Johnson Park on April 17^th and 18^th. If you didn’t make it to this one (you know who you are!) you missed some of the finest sailing conditions this RD has ever seen. It was in the high 70’s, pure Carolina blue skies and winds ranging from 4mph to 10mph. Thanks to wind directions from S to SW, the course conditions were very consistent, and a modified Olympic course with a windward starting leg gave the skippers a real test of their skills. With only 10 boats in the fleet, they not only got excellent sailing, they got a LOT of it! 18 races on Saturday and 9 more on Sunday for 27 races in all.

Saturday started out with Doug Hale’s local knowledge getting him the first bullet, and then Pete Kremlick and his Columbia colleague George Walker came on strong and surged into the lead, closely followed by (Uncle) Frank Angel who was never far out of first - until lunch. Maybe it was something he ate? As the wind picked up to 10 mph plus gusts in the afternoon, the leward mark gradually drifted towards the woods, lengthening the course automatically to compensate for the extra boat speed, and by the time we ran out of "room at the mark" we had completed 18 races, most had had enough racing for the day (some too much…) and we adjourned with Pete Kremlick holding a solid lead in spite of a very strong finish to the day from Carl Olbrich.

Sunday saw more of the same, although the winds eventually came and went as we got closer to midday. Emergency changes to the paper and computer score-sheets were made to accommodate the extra races and we completed our 27 races shortly after noon. Pete had held on to his lead, Carl took second and Frank took third spot. A couple of bullets for George put him in fourth, and another strong start to the day helped Doug hold on to 5^th. I believe this was the first trophy for George and for Doug – Congratulations to them, and to the rookie sailors who had some very good showings over the two days. For Pete it was his first regatta win. He also won the door-prize - a lovely wooden model schooner donated by Doug, and to top it all off it was his birthday! Congratulations Pete.

Finally, a big thank you to the local club members who made all the preparations, and assisted me in running the regatta: Doug Hale, Jim Utley, Justin Flint, Deon van de Merwe, and Jimmy Edwards.

Your RD

Gerry Cobley