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New this year is the plan to have dinner at The WaterFront restaurant. This is a cozy restaurant with a wide variety of menu choices (but no greek).  Depending on our group size, we may have the entire side room to ourselves.  Of course a Gelato fix is also possible at Mike's Place (Gibson's has possibly the best Gelato outside of Italy).

 

 

The 2015 Day & A Bit race was held under fresh breeze (mostly) and sunny skies (again...mostly).  Sixteen boats entered the race, however L'Aristo suffered headsail problems and retired before her start.  Morningtide (Catalina 27) was the first boat away with a pursuit start time of 09:00, and she was passed by only one boat on the 20.6nm crossing to Gibsons!  In fact the Saturday crossing showed less than usual "mixing-up" of the fleet, as the fresh breeze had most boats doing hull-speed+.  The breeze lightened and backed closer to Gibsons, and some spinnakers went-up for the run to the finish line.  Dream Chaser (F-27 trimaran) enjoyed these conditions and had a quick crossing of under 2hrs finishing just before noon (early enough to dry-out after getting firehosed).  Morningtide was 2nd (and singlehanded as well), followed by Optimist (Catalina 36) 3rd, and then Qismat (Gulfstar 44 ketch) was 4th.  It is unusual to have a ketch in this race, and Qismat was a pretty picture charging under a full press of canvas.  The entire monohull fleet finished within ~30 minutes of each other...maybe the ratings were not so bad?

 

We surprised GLHA with our early arrival, but they handled this in-stride and found moorage spots for everyone.  Plenty of time for visiting new and old friends (or taking an afternoon nap).  Grandma's Pub was the place to be in the late afternoon to cheer-on the Canadian women soccer team against the limeys, but it was not their day, and they were bumped from the tournament.  Dinner was at The Waterfront restaurant, and for the rest of the evening the place was ours.  This was a relaxing evening of good food, drinks, and company.

 

The Sunday return race leg had breeze at the start line...a nice change from past years when we have struggled to get away from Gibsons!  It was a beat or close reach into the NW wind, and being much low of the rhumb line was a mistake as this later meant tacking to clear Entrance Island.  Dream Chaser had another good crossing, but this time the other trimaran Mail Order Bride  (F85SR) was hot on her heels finishing about 4 minutes later (and flying her main hull for some of the time!).  ION was next in 3rd place...and then the wind faded and switched direction to SW, and this caused trouble for the rest of the fleet.  A few boats retired, but most struggled to the finish line at the South end of Protection Island.

 

The after race gathering was full of stories, and the smiles told the main story that we had fun!  That is what the Day & A Bit is all about.  Gift certificates were awarded to boats ranked 1,2,3...thanks to the Harbour Chandler and the Dinghy Dock Pub for this!  The draw for the grand prize went to Qismat, hope they can use a custom mainsail cover or jib snorkle cover from Lohmann Sails and Covers.

 

 

Replay the race action from both days with TackTracker