Another year, another Wirth Munroe race! Bandana with the usual suspects... minus a few... on the start line again. Drew's flight from VT. was snowed in, Mike had to work (eewwww!) and Peter...well, who knows!

So the crew was Skip, Stef, Sam, Bob, Frank and Jim. A bit light for the big red boat! But hey, we're tough right? We can do this!

Checking out the new toys!	Jim and Bob
Sam, Bob and Frank	Frank, Skippy and Jim

Off the dock at 0645hrs to beat the locked down bridges on the river and lucky not to get delayed by a train! The things we do for the love of sailing!

The next big issue was to decide which headsail to use, as we were unable to change during the race, as long as the roller furler was in place...unless of course we were willing to go bareheaded, which, of course, we were not. The weather guessers were totally NOT in agreement so we had to take a chance. Frank was sure the wind was going to stay light and so he decided to take down the brand new, never sailed #3 and put the #2 (also nearly brand new) back on. It was exactly the right call... for the start, and the first hour... and then...as I feared, it became the wrong call! The wind came up, and up… and up. I think the guys mentioned that they saw 30kts apparent a few times. We had little choice but to roll up the Jib some to shorten sail. This, of course, changes the sail shape and reduces upwind performance dramatically and hides the telltales, making it tough on the helmsman.

How nice and dry I am!	OK, well that didn't last long! But still smiling!

The closest competitor to us all day was LOKI, a J-105 with my friend Joe on the pointy end. It's always more fun

LOKI

when you have a competitor in close range.

Sam is all smiles at the helm.

I'm not the only one wet, but Jim doesn't have the smile that I did!

We had a fun race and as always, the party/food at the Sailfish Club was great. Final results, another trophy for the Bandana team.

Third in class, Fourth in fleet.

It never stops amazing me what a difference a day can make on the water. Below, are a few shots from the trip home and a few photos by Marco from the start.