With a brisk westerly and another good turn-out, South Beach YC’s Friday night race on May 2 looked to be another success. The first division went off at 6:35 on a longish course, almost eight miles. Then the race committee changed the course, but in error picked one with a downwind start. So they postponed the second start while they sorted it out. No biggie.

Then, just as Division 2 was about to start, one of three Islander 36s snagged the committee boat’s anchor line. With 15 knots of wind blowing them alongside the pretty trawler, they quickly doused sails, but could not untangle themselves.

Finally, the anchor line had to be cut. Fortunately, the trawler Anabel carried a spare anchor, so once the I36 Highlighter had freed herself, the RC was able to set again and get the sequence back underway. The crews in Division 1 must have been wondering what the heck was going on, with all those boats still in their way as they sailed through on their downwind leg. Since it was now past 7:00, the remaining four divisions got short courses. They were quite a bit of fun anyway.

Results and more can be found at www.southbeachyc.org/racing/index.htm#calendar.