This year, the Ms. Race was looking a little iffy, with thunderstorms forecast, and a long line of storms appearing on the radar at the time of the skippers’ meeting.
As the time came to leave the harbor, the radar showed the storms falling apart as they reached the coast, so with a nice 10 knot breeze (but hazy overcast), racers left for the start.
Six boats (all woman crews) turned out, including a Viper from Raritan. Sporting a provisional rating of 94 (probably way off), we wondered how this small boat would fare with the larger boats in the race.
The race started on time, without much crowding; ok, without any crowding. The Viper (Double D) was first across the line. Today, despite the fears of a wash out, turned out to have just about the perfect breeze for racing. All the crews looked comfortable and the fleet was much closer together than many past races.
There were a lot of surprises in the results this year. The little Viper apparently had perfect conditions, and beat the rest of the fleet by a significant margin. The rest of the fleet was much closer; I’ll provide the details when the final results are posted. There were really no losers in this race, including the charity (180 – Turning Lives Around – www.180nj.org) for whom the race was a fund raiser.
Back in the harbor, the crews returned to the AHYC clubhouse to enjoy a cool drink and wait for the results to come in.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the day. We had a few sprinkles (hardly even rain) during the day, and only a hint of sunshine. The breeze held, and it was one of the better days of racing on the bay. All in all, this was one of the best Ms. Races yet. There was much talk about returning next year, and trying to expand the women’s racing around the bay.
Please check out additional pictures at: http://jeffgoldfarb.zenfolio.com/p989450542
See some of Jeff Smith’s photos at: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/9391711_TDNLw#629 009821_KBuAy