Two separate man overboard incidents and numerous breakages were testimony to the healthy breeze and sharp chop in Galveston Bay. “The winds were strong but we like heavy air.” said J/109er Barry Brown who’s Blue Max picked up back-to-back seconds. “Things were going great for the fleet until we had a tight four boat rounding and there wasn’t much room to maneuver. Suddenly my crew was telling that one of the other boats had a man overboard right in the middle of things. Fortunately they were able to recover him with out things getting worse and the fleet carried on. ” Fred Lindsey is having a great regatta with four firsts and a second in the Level 130 fleet. Now he can add rescuing an overboard sailor from the Ensign fleet while still managing to pick up a third place with out redress to his tally. Redress for his rescue is likely to improve his position but final results weren’t in at the posting of this story. In a world of win, place or show, most of the focus is on win, but a lot of the action and drama is happening behind the leaders. Just ask Marc Walters who has firsts in all four of the Corsair 28 races. “Sure I’m having a great regatta but what’s even neater is the three way tie for second,” said Walters. Every leg of the race matters for them and they’re having a blast fighting it out.” Bruce Jenevein, one of the three tied for second agrees, “That’s what we love about our class, we have lots of intense competition and we work hard to keep improving the fleets skill. Tomorrow’s going to be an exciting day for us” On day two in the J/22 fleet Terry Flynn picked up three firsts which go nicely with the three firsts he won on day one. Holding down the second slot in the J/22 fleet was Keith Zars with two thirds and a second. David Bethancourt had a sixth, second and a third to take third overall. “The second was glorious and the third was a great come back for us,” said Bethancourt. “In the first race of the day we adjusted for the higher winds but we over trimmed which made us very high and very slow and finished sixth. In the next race we eased everything and the boat was much faster.” In the J109 fleet, Steve Rhyne on Mojo started in a tie for first but back-to-back bullets on day two gave him a solid lead. “We focused on the crew work and getting around the course without making mistakes,” according to Rhyne’ “We never had an hourglass, no bad sets or douses and that was the big difference. In both races there were two boats ahead of us but they both had problems and we were able to get pass them by staying focused on boat handling. They made a bad set or jibe and we didn’t and that was all it took,” said Rhyne. Marvin Beckman went 1, 2, 3 for the day to solidify his lead in the Etchells fleet. Second is held by Ken Womack with Gary Ross one point behind in third place. On day three second will be up for grabs between these two top competitors. In the first day of racing for the Ensign fleet, Dean Snider’s Little Oil captured two firsts and a second. Snider credits his success partly to black clouds. “There was more wind than the Ensign needed today, so we worked away from the areas with dark clouds. There is generally more wind associated with cloud formations so we were avoiding the areas with dark clouds to keep us in a better wind for our boat.” With another day of good winds, day three looks to be an exciting finish for the Galveston NOODs.
