Saturday dawned cloudy and very windy. Several sailors expressed trepidation, but Principal Race Officer Carl Fritzner led us out into the wind and waves. We raced two races backto-back and the rides downwind under the asymmetrical were incredible. I had never sailed that fast before on any boat. My crew actually had to move forward to keep the bow down!  This is certainly something you don't see often on a scow downwind. Coming screaming into the leeward mark causes you to ask each other, "uh, how exactly are we going to take this thing down?" but it turns out that heading deep downwind takes enough pressure off the big sail that the crew can handle it with confidence, as long as the skipper has a steady hand on the tiller and the traffic is not too intense.

Race #1 was won by scow newcomers Andy and Ann Gratton in their yellow refurbished boat. There were a few capsizes in the first two races, but all were self-rescued. I somehow pulled out a dream start for the second race and was off in the lead to the windward mark and lead to the leeward mark, too. At the rounding, Steve Yost and Pete Huff with "Pizzazz" came in a little cleaner and grabbed the lead. We chased them around the course again but never quite caught them. They held us off manfully on the last beat to take the win.