Better Day at Thistle Nationals

Fort Walton Beach, FL (July 30, 2015) – After wind delays and storms kept the 50-boat Thistle Nationals fleet off the water yesterday, today proved more fruitful by adding three races to the scorecard. With six races now completed, Mike Ingham with crew Dan Fien and Sarah Paisley holds a 9 point lead over Paul Abdullah with Sam Ingham 22 points back in third. The final day of racing is Friday, July 31.

Event website – Results

Report by class president Kyle Finefrock:
With a lay day Wednesday due to storms, the fleet had to wake up early Thursday to try and get a race started in the morning northerly. We were optimistic that the race committee was willing to push the start time and try for three races in the day.

The first race started in light air that quickly went North East giving the right side of the course a strong advantage. Even though the scores are being split Presidents and Championship divisions, the class decided to sail together as one fleet, so every point counts. The wind continued to swing drastically throughout the race, but managed to stay within class tolerances. The northerly slowly died throughout the race, but left us just enough to finish. The race was won by Mike Ingham, followed by Jack Finefrock.

After a brief conversation with the RC, we were sent back into shore for lunch and to wait for the sea breeze to fill in. With that call all of the sailors were more than happy to have a chance to cool down and refill their water bottles. “The break in the afternoon for lunch was nice to cool off, though it was extremely HOT today,” shared Cody McCoun.

After an hour or so on shore, the breeze had shifted to what all had hoped to be the sea breeze and the RC made the call to send us back out to the racecourse. And they were right! The wind locked in due south and picked up to a solid 12-15 knots. “Everyone had to react to the big change in gears,” commented Christine Rice (crewing on 1784), also adding: “We knew the sea breeze would kick into the right direction, but were surprised to find out how quickly it came in!”

The race committee was able to pull off two races in the afternoon to put the fleet back on schedule for one last race on Friday. The fleet was cooled off with a little rain in race two, all except for Sam Ingham who set the afternoon on fire with a 1,1. The morning was won by the older Ingham, the afternoon by his son Sam. Sam sailed two spectacular races in the afternoon. “I’ve never seen a Thistle so flat,” mentioned spectator Larry Shedden. “Everyone knows these boats like to be sailed flat, but Sam was by far the most in control of the boat and conditions.”