Snipe U.S. Nationals – Day 4

Ridgeway, ONT (July 25, 2013) – Difficult conditions plagued the fourth day at the Snipe U.S. National Championship, with race management needing all day to find sufficient wind for one race. Competition concludes Friday. Click here for results.

More from Carol Cronin: After a 1 hour postponement ashore to wait for wind, the fleet was sent out into a light easterly that got lighter as we got farther away from the shoreline. After a few hours of waiting, the fleet was sent ashore again for a late lunch break… and then when the breeze steadied and built a bit from the northeast, we sailed out again around 3pm.

Race 8 started in a 5-6 knot ENE breeze that offered different challenges from the past few days: the key was keeping the boat going through the lulls in order to make it to the next puff and shift. Andrew Pimental/Nikki Bruno led around the first two laps but lost out to Cameron Fraser/Liz Glivinski right at the finish. Scott Sinks/Storm Brown finished third. And in spite of posting a 17th, Raul Rios/Mac Agnese are still at the top of the leaderboard, two points ahead of Ernesto Rodriguez/Eduardo Mintzias.

The forecast for Friday is also for light winds, which is why the RC tried so hard for an additional race at an hour more usually reserved for cocktails.

Photo by Martin Fraser was taken 15 sec before the start of race 7.