The District V1 Championships were hosted by Fleet 78 in Anacortes on the weekend of July 18^th and 19^th. Lido teams from Anacortes, Portland and Seattle made it out for the regatta including Jim Sterner who had done a yeoman’s job of getting his 2963 in serviceable condition after his regular Lido 14 (#5110) was damaged the prior weekend at the High Sierra Regatta.

After the skippers meeting, everyone made their way out to Fidalgo Bay for a 14:00 scheduled start. As is typical for a July day, it was warm and sunny. What was not so typical was the breeze. The direction was the normal west/southwest but it was blowing 15 and very puffy. Tobey and Barbara King were the unlucky recipients of a huge puff at the wrong time and ended up in the drink before the start of the first race, putting a damper (pun intended) on their weekend. The unusually gusty conditions kept skippers and crews on their toes working the sheets and the hiking straps, trying to keep their boat upright and going fast. The race committee had set a shorter than normal race track and it was obvious by the crowd at the first weather mark that there would be a premium on boat position and planning ahead. After a bit of a tacking dual up the final part of the weather leg to the finish, Steve and Ginger Orsini and Garrett and Tracy Johns found themselves first and second respectively, with Matt and Maggie Nolan not far behind. Conspicuously missing from the finishing boats, and completely gone from the race course, was Jim and Carolyn Sterner.

The fleet got of a total a 5 races on Saturday with minimal carnage out on the bay other than a few minor gear failures and a few bumps and bruises…oh yeah...the Sterners.  After the short sail back to the dinghy docks, we found the Sterners safe and sound.  It turns out that after rounding the first weather mark with the front of the pack, Jim and Carolyn heard a loud "crack" and …you guessed it...deck beam failure.  Jim deserves some sort of an award for not going insane. Two road trips, one and a half races and two boats out of commission…ouch!  Despite this, Jim was in good spirits and had a great attitude. The silver lining was that Peter Rasco had family obligations on Sunday and was kind enough to let the Sterners borrow his boat for the Sunday racing.

When the scores came out, Orsini and Johns found themselves deadlocked with 11 points each. The Runyans had a fairly secure 3^rd and there was a very tight battle for 4^th – 6^th with only 1 point separating each place.

The fleet had a great time at the club on Saturday night with a lasagna dinner with all the trimmings and ice cream and brownies for desert. Thanks to Ginger Orsini, Tracy Johns, Dina Lofgren, and Alexis Orisini for all the hard work in organizing and preparing the food! Everyone had a great time stuffing their faces and talking about the great day on the water.

After dinner, it was time for the real reason we all were assembled the AYC clubhouse. The 2009 District VI Foosball Championships. The finals found the team of Johns/Runyan battling Sterner/Sandifer. With Ron Runyan on defense and manning the goal, Jim Sterner seemed to have no answer for Garrett’s assault on Mark Sandifer on the other end. I have a feeling Jim and Mark are going to come back next time with a vengeance!

Sunday morning welcomed more sunshine and what looked to be shaping up as a more typical day of 6-8 knot westerly. An 11:00am start was scheduled and after a short delay waiting for the breeze to fill in, the fleet got 3 more windward/ leeward races in to close out the weekend with a total of 8 races.  With the close racing, almost every boat had a race with moment of glory and maybe a few not so glorious moments.  The top 5 boats received some super cool Gil dry bags back at the club during awards. Thanks to Steve Orisini for organizing the racing as the District VI Secretary this past year.

When the smoke cleared, the team of Steve and Ginger Orsini found themselves as District VI Champions, beating Garrett and Tracy Johns on a tiebreaker.  A fitting end to the close racing all weekend out on the course! Congrats to Steve and Ginger for a great weekend of sailing and good luck to Steve who will have to miss the rest of the sailing season due to shoulder surgery.  We will look forward to seeing you back on the water!

Thanks to everyone who came out to sail as well as Tom Glade and the rest of the Race Committee for helping make a great weekend of sailing and hanging out with the District VI sailing crew. Also of note, the group unanimously elected Mark Sandifer as the District VI Secretary for next this next year. Thanks Mark !!