By Mike Ferring
Racing Captain
Grab some friends, invite someone new, splash the boat, and race around the islands. Just for fun.
It’s the annual Tall Cactus Regatta, a chance to chase your friends around Lake Pleasant on a nice spring day. For a selective few in the hard-core brigade, it’s a chance to race for a trophy.
This year’s Tall Cactus is on Saturday afternoon, April 22, starting at 1pm. The optional skippers meeting is at 11:30am. At the 1:05pm gun, everybody will start together, heading south from the mid-lake start/finish line, then north to round Horse Island and the mark north of Balance Rock Island, and then turning south to finish at the start/finish. It’s time-on-time handicap scoring, so the crew that sails best is supposed to win.
Awards this year will go to the top-finishing boat and the best-finishing mono- and multi-hull boats.
Following the race, awards will be given out at the AYC-hosted “Grand Finale Season End” BBQ at Spinnaker Point. Marshall Williamson volunteered to organize this post-race social and has recruited volunteers to grill up Hatch chili burgers, salmon burgers and brats. Please feel free to bring snacks to share. Nonalcoholic refreshments will be available, but if you’re in a more celebratory mood, BYOB to add to the available Margarita mixer.
Mostly, this is a time to enjoy the sport and to get out to stretch your boat’s legs on a long-distance chase. It would also be a good time to invite some of the club’s many new members to come sail with you, to try out someone on the crew list, and to enjoy the afternoon.
Here’s a link to the racing page with the combined Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions, Course Chart, and the button to sign up. It’s just twenty bucks to enter.