Snipes complete Day 1 despite light winds

Published on July 28th, 2014

Okoboji, IA (July 28, 2014) – The first day of racing for the 2014 SCIRA USA National Championship has wrapped up and once again Raul Rios is sitting atop the leader board. The forecast was calling for 12-15kts, however the fleet never saw more than 8kts, and sometimes saw zero kts, never the less the race committee led by PRO Phil Petersen was able to complete the three scheduled races in plenty of time for the evening entertainment.

San Diegan Kate Sheahan, sailing for Ernesto Rodriguez from the Miami Snipe fleet commented that the sailing was “tricky, the heavy motor boat wakes from pleasure boats combined with the puffy and inconsistent winds made it hard to keep moving. Raul (Rios) was able to have great starts and extend his lead but the rest of the fleet struggled off the line and there were several instances of near inversion on the down wind legs.”

For the spectators on shore it was frustrating to watch the fleet stall on the race course only to see the back of the pack get their own gust of wind and nearly catch the leaders.

Two more races are scheduled for tomorrow to conclude the Crosby series. If conditions are favorable the fleet will start the Heinzerling Series tomorrow as well to try and get ahead of schedule while they can.