Drama....every regatta CRAM has held this year has some sort of wind event.
We had just hit the beach for the day at about 2 PM because we saw storms to the south. Lots of time to hit the beach and get the boats up near the trees and get the sails down. At the time it looked like the storm was going to stay to the south...NOT. I went back to the RV to change. Mark Bachelor then tells me to get down to the beach and tie down...the winds were howling. I am not a good judge of wind but it could have been 50-60 this time. I grabbed my auger and ran toward the beach. The closer I got the more debris from the big trees started hitting me in the face along with the hail. The last straw was the heavy lightning strikes. So I bailed and headed into the North Cape YC. I was standing with the crowd just in awe of mother natures power. They had a string of 420's I think on trailers that started tipping over. Close to tipping over on A boats that had their masts safely stowed and the boats were either tied down on on a trailer. Sean Fiedler ran out in the middle of the storm to pull a 420 away from his A. A little later we saw a F 17 tumble over and go flat, I was standing next to Wiz and he said "that's me", then he walked away headed toward the bar. A few minutes later we noticed another F 17 at an odd angle and thats when I said "that me". At the time it didn't look like the mast was damaged (it wasn't) but we had no idea what extent the damage was until we could venture outside. As luck would have it the side stay landed in my trailer cradle and absorbed the blow. The winds then drove the trailer down the beach about 10 feet digging in the front little wheel. We got 10 guys and disconnected the boat and trailer and the only damage was a slightly bent boom ( I plan on using it the rest of the season) and some cosmetic damage to the starbord hull. We got the boat righted and saw another strom coming. I grabbed by useless dog auger and started screwing into the lawn and it broke in half. (crap must have been produced in China). So this time I cut out the middle man and tipped the boat over on its side again. This weathered the second storm just fine. Glen Koenigbeaurs boat was not tied down and it was in the middle of the beach and it didn't move. Another Hobie 17 was on the top of a double stacked trailer and the wind blew the trailer over.
Poor Wiz got the worst of it, the mast was toast. He came down to race, got all set up. Did a Friday evening race with Mark Bachelor and I with the yatchies. Then got drafted into A mark duties. Never got to race the weekend!
Drama....
