The Principal Race Officer was Jacques Rioux, the Scorer was Jason Troy, and the lunch service was provided by Carmen Gaudreault. Michael Roberson managed the rescue boat and the supply of water and ice.

Photos Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sTACHLYyUMVHaKoR6

The 2024 TMYC RC Laser Fall Festival Regatta was held on Saturday September 28th at Lake Crabtree County Park, in Morrisville NC. The regatta also stood as the AMYA RC Laser Region 3 Championship for 2024. Unfortunately, we had only 7 registrants, so it made for an intimate affair. The weather for the last two weeks had been ominous, with huge amounts of rain almost every day. In spite of that, the forecast called for a warm and sunny day with winds from 6 to 9 mph which gave us some hope of having a good day of racing after all. The morning started on a somewhat negative note, with the park opening 20 or 25 minutes late because of fell trees on the park road. But the park crew cleared the road in an efficient manner and all racers were able to get in essentially at the same time.

When we started racing, the wind was essentially from the South-West with speeds of perhaps 5 or 6 mph. We set up a course with a single windward and a leeward mark. We changed the windward mark in early afternoon and the leeward mark for the last 3 races. In the morning, the wind was steady, and most racers were sporting an A sail. However, with the wind building up some B sails appeared here and there early on. By lunch time the wind had built up significantly, with gusts around 13 mph and everyone moved to B rigs.

In the end we were able to run 18 races. After the 7 morning races, there were 4 different winners with Michael Roberson and Neil Saunders, both from Raleigh NC, winning 3 and 2 races respectively. The other winners were Martin Bowers of Youngsville NC and Lee Arnold from Virginia, with one win each. Most morning races were hotly contested, and finishes were close. But, as the day wore on, and as the wind speed increased, conditions became more fluky and more difficult.

We stopped for lunch after 7 races. We ran another 11 races in the afternoon. Of those 11 races, Martin won 10. He slipped and fell into second in one of the late races. He won some with perfect starts and some with bad ones. He even won the race in which he was called over early. Of course, he won the whole regatta. It was truly an amazing performance.

Michael kept sailing well but could not touch Martin in the afternoon and finished second. Tom Rummage of Garner NC seemed to be picking up more than his share of debris in the water and spent the first half of the regatta in fourth place. But he kept fighting and was the only one, other than Martin, to win a race in the afternoon. He finished in third position.

Skip Allen was registered but could not sail on the day due to family emergency.