It became clear early in race one that the bigger sailors would have a distinct advantage when Bishop rounded mark one in the lead with Ash Beatty and Hank Saurage close behind.  The lead would change between the three of them countless times, but Bishop set up to finish on the favored side of a slightly skewed finish line to edge out Hank by a boatlength.  Jackson Benvenutti and Ryan Hamilton sailed with a combined weight of 230 lbs and showed that they could contend, finishing only about six boatlengths behind the leaders!

The wind increased from 15 knots to about 18 knots for race two and Ash and Hank showed superior speed downwind when they rounded six boatlengths ahead of Clinton and Bishop and opened up to about twenty by the time they got to the leeward mark.  A quick scuffle on the second beat left Clinton on the short end of the stick and Bishop back up into third.

Ash and Hank, again built up a substantial lead in race three, but Bishop figured out the downwind technique on the last leeward and came back from ten boatlengths at the last mark to finish overlapped with the two leaders.  Using this technique and a couple of depowering tricks (and a much better start), Bish had an eight or so boatlength lead after the first round of the W2 course and increased his lead to 15 or 20 by the last leg, cruising to an easy win for the last race of they day.

Confusion as to who finished second and third in race one, had the three leaders on the beach adding, subtracting, multiplying, hoping, arguing, scratching heads, agreeing and disagreeing as to the point totals.  The one thing they did agree on was to clean up, put the boats to bed, and head upstairs for Bushwackers until the Race Committee could tally the scores.  The three were in a dead tie.  Hank and Ash headed out to dinner and rest.  Rick & Cathy Eagan, Larry Keith, Bishop, Gilly, and Chris Frost decided that the Bushwackers were too good be let go to waste.  The Juniors stayed, ordered pizza and slept on the Keith's Shamrock.

Bishop managed to get out for a few hours of practice Friday in a pretty good breeze, and though this must have helped somewhat, there has to be another explanation for Sunday.   Two days in a row of sailing in this kind of wind is tough to say the least, but throw in a full match of tennis with David Blouin Friday night after practice and one might think that he was trying to wear himself out ...  a big vote of confidence and a "go beat 'em" from a friend, re-energized him Sunday morning.  Winning the start in race five, he opened up huge lead by the second windward, maybe 25 or so boatlengths.  It appeared that a rout might be on until Gilly and Peter Wuescher popped out of the right side with the biggest wind shift of the weekend.  Gilly was almost able to cross Bishop, but a safe lee tack allowed Bish to lead him into the finish.

Having put two boats between himself and Ash, Bishop now only had to make sure Ash did not win the last race.  In grueling 20-25 knots, Gilly and Hank port tacked the fleet (MAN that is embarrassing!) by 8 boatlengths and held thier lead for the most of the beat, but once Ash fell back enough and Gilly got caught up in a pocket of lighter air, Bishop turned his sights on Hank.  Hank rounded 6 boatlenghts of Bish at mark one and overlapped at mark two.  The two sailed to the right and Bishop was able to work up on Hank's hip until a small knock convinced him to tack away while Hank continued right.  A small lefty back in the middle allowed Bish to get back right and it was enough of a shift to allow him to cross Hank and cover the rest of the leg building up a ten boatlength cushion to take the last race and the Championship.

Defending Champion, Jackson Benvenutti and crew, Ryan Hamilton, took Top Junior honors (this is also Jackson's second year in a row as Top Junior in the event), Katje Riise decided to go it alone snapping a mast in race three but still managed second Junior and Top Female honors  and Fred Eagan with crew Johnny White were third in the Junior division.  Paul Keith and Granston Boxx were in the hunt for silver, but could not finish the series.  Alex Boudreaux teamed up with Justin O'Rourke from Biloxi YC, but a broken gooseneck took them out of the event.

Following Sunday's races, Larry and Beth Keith brought an ice chest of soft drinks, water and beer, broiled & fried chicken, chips, salsa and a home made bean dip for the sailors to enjoy while they put there boats away.  This kind of good deed does not go un-noticed.  Thank you, Beth and Larry for the snacks and for having Shamrock out there again! 

Bishop has sailed this event many a dozen or so times and has not won it until this year.  The win is BWYC's sixth out of the last eight years going back to 1995.

Results:

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