Temperatures in the mid-80s, wind mostly in the comfy 8-10. Pretty much perfect—and the sailors who spent the Governor’s Cup Saturday (11/24) sailing to and fro on Lake Pleasant were pretty much all smiles.
How do you sail 26.2 miles on Lake Pleasant? According to the diabolical plan of organizer Mike Parker, you do it by sailing north, south, east, and west in intersecting lines around obscure buoys, a floating porta-potty, and a couple islands. Surprisingly, the wind was willing to play along. William Fairchild brought his runner’s GPS along for the ride on Peter Hartleb’s J/80 and found that they logged just over 28 miles for the race, finding they didn’t need to do much upwind tacking that could have lengthened the race.
In fact, the first finishers were back home before dark and didn’t need the nearly-full moon for navigation. Who won that gigantic Governor’s Cup Trophy? We’re waiting for word from the official scorekeeper and maybe some more conversation about which of those obscure buoys were intended to be rounding marks. All to be sorted out shortly, we hope.
