You may have noticed a bit of wind at your house last weekend, right? You may have remembered that I was up at the AYC Open sailing a Y Flyer, too. Oh boy. So when my normal crew had “other plans”, I sought out a random partner via the grapevine and ended up crewing for Fred Dorr using Karl Anderson’s boat. Very nice arrangement – Fred is very experienced and very good. Lots of local knowledge. And Karl’s boat was first rate. Saturday comes and the wind is really blowing. Remember that time we took the Capri out on Pamlico sound? But more wind. People were having trouble leaving the dock. Snipes almost flipping, Thistles almost swamping. We sailed out and proceeded to smash our way around the starting line, while getting thoroughly soaked from head to toe. It was a blast – the boat was really flying and spray was going everywhere. My jacket and bibs were working. I was running the timer, trimming the jib, hiking hard and watching traffic. We got a reasonable start, but being too heavy guys with “plenty” of wind, we out-pointed and out-paced the boats nearby and after a few tacks were near the front. Fred picked the left side perfectly and stayed on the lifted tacks. We rounded the weather mark in second place. Had a bit of trouble with the whisker pole due to the wind, but by the gybe mark we had left behind the following boats and were gaining on the leader. The pole gybe went fine – it was the main that caused the problem. I think we were focused on catching the boat ahead, but that didn’t work out. The bow caught under a wave, and that was all she wrote. Darn near pitch-poled. Turns out that Y’s turtle very quickly in 20+ mph wind and are difficult to right. Water wasn’t warm either. We ended up back at the dock for the day, after a rather long swim. I think we were the first boat to flip, but certainly not the last. I ended up separated from the boat and rode back on the rescue boat – we righted a couple of other boats and picked up two other swimmers on the way. That night the camper shook with the wind, but by morning it seemed calmer. At least relative to overnight. Turns out the wind had just clocked a bit and we weren’t as exposed. I got to the dock, and Fred said his ribs hurt too much to sail (I have a big bruise on my arm). Since I was dressed in full gear, I jumped on the rescue boat (a cut-down Carolina skiff). The fleet had shrunk substantially. The first flip came before the first start when a Snipe decided to head back in and didn’t make the tack. We pulled in a mother and cold daughter in shorts and tee shirt, and proceeded to try to right their boat right in the middle of the starting line while the committee went ahead with the starts all around us. And that was only the beginning. Before long boats were flipping left and right. Seemed to be the gybes that got them. We towed one snipe with a snapped shroud (but upright!). We would have rescued more, but the motor sucked in a rope and we couldn’t drive very fast. There were 4 or 5 rescue/safety boats running around. By the end of the race only 4 Y Flyers finished (out of 20 registered), plus 3 Snipes and 3 Thistles. I know that two of the Thistles had swamped at least once during the race. 10 boats left – at least an 80% attrition rate, but the Y’s finished the most boats. Despite the large quantity of flipped boats and swimming racers, as far as I know now one was hurt and no boats suffered more than minor damage. Compliments to AYC for putting so much safety on the water and pulling off a fun regatta in trying conditions. It certainly was fun and I’m ready for more! Jay