The A-Class North American Championship started today from Traverse City, MI with two very windy races on Grand Traverse Bay. In the first race, the southwest breeze was blowing 16-19 knots with gusts in the mid 20’s. In the second race, the gusts were up to 28 knots according to the race committee. Fortunately, there was only one mishap in the 28 boat fleet when one sailor got hammered by a vicious gust downwind in the second race and broke his mast.
Past North American champion Pete Melvin is leading the event with a first and second sailing a brand new NACRA A2 platform. One point behind is class newcomer Peter Johnstone with a first and third sailing the new Bimare XJ. The top five is rounded out by Phil Kinder with a 2nd and 4th and a tie for fourth between Ben Hall and Woody Cope each with 9 points.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is nearly the same except racing will start one hour earlier than was scheduled today. Today’s racing was scheduled to start at 12 noon. The sailors knew it was windy and the race committee reported 23 knot gusts on the race course at 11:45 AM. It was decided to postpone for two hours to see if the wind would moderate. After that window was up, it appeared that the breeze had dropped to a more manageable 15-18 knots but by the time the fleet was on the water, it picked back up.
Four races were scheduled for today, it is hoped to do at least three tomorrow, four on Thursday, and 2-3 on Friday. Stay tuned!
