NWISA: Olympia South Regional Team Race

With 14 teams, and only 1-Day of racing accomplishing a 91 race round robin was unlikely - but the goal to get off as many races as possible was met and exceeded!

Races were sailed in beautiful Budd Inlet off of the Port Plaza Dock, with a fantastic view of the snow capped Olympic Mountains and the southern Puget Sound. Rolling black clouds, brilliant sun breaks, rainbows, rain squalls and more made for dynamic races and spectating.

A stiff south westerly was forecasted, and it did not disappoint. Filling around 11am, the wind built from 5-10knts, and peaked around 12-15knts around 2pm. It returned to a solid 8-10 knots or so for the rest of the day with races going as late as 6pm. To make things really interesting the city drained Capital Lake, which flooded the course creating river like 3-5knt current during the windiest part of the day.

Around race #43 the Coaches and RC decided to have a sail off with the top 5 teams established at that point in the rotation. Allowing competitive teams who had yet to race each other do so for both the experience and to help break ties.

Thank you Andrew Nelson of the Sailing Foundation for being the PRO. Casey, Paul, and Jim for setting a beautiful course, and finally Norm Smit for hearing protests.