2021 Lawson Rum Bucket
The Gibson Island Yacht Squadron hosted the 2021 edition of the Lawson Rum Bucket on Saturday, November 13th. The forecast was for the southerly breeze to swing to the west as a strong cold front passed through. The big question was the timing of the front passage and how many races could be squeezed in beforehand. Three Penguins were joined by 5 Comets (starting separately) on the twice around windward leeward course started just off the docks from our launch point at the causeway clubhouse. In the first race. Bill Lawson and Colette Preis took advantage of a couple of shifts on the first beat and led around the course to take the win, followed by Bobby Lippincott with junior sailor crew, Alex V. In race 2, Bobby Lippincott rounded the weather mark just ahead of Charlie Krafft sailing with LeAnn Myhre when the first strong gust associated with the front hit the fleet. Bobby and Alex did a spectacular death roll. Charlie and LeAnn completed the course, executing a chicken gybe rather than risk swimming as the wind was piping strong. When Bill and Colette got back to the leeward mark/starting line, after heading upwind briefly, decided that retiring and heading to the nearby dock was the more prudent course of action. Thomas Point recorded gusts to 31 kts, and Wick Dudley reported a 41 kt gust across the bay in Queenstown. We had several strong sustained and just getting the boats safely to the dock and out of the water was a challenge. After racing the Comet sailors joined the Penguin sailors in the causeway clubhouse for some of Bill Lawson’s famous chicken chili with cornbread and warmed cider. Thanks to Greg Cukor for running the races and the RC staff who were quick to the aid of the capsized boat (fortunately just one). John Anthony representing CBYRA was on board the RC boat and captured some exciting video, which is slated to appear in a CBYRA one-design promotional piece. Handmade Penguin plate trophies made by Kathy Chow were awarded to each skipper and crew.
The Comets had an interesting scoring issue. The lead boat won both races. Then there was a four way tie among the rest of the fleet for second place, each boat having 7 points.
Results
|
Boat |
Name |
Skipper |
Crew |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
|
9694/9478 sail |
Otter B |
Charles Krafft |
LeAnn Myhre |
3 |
1 |
|
9677 |
Family Ties |
Bill Lawson |
Colette Preis |
1 |
DNF |
|
9664 |
Sidewinder |
Bob Lippincott |
Alex V. |
2 |
DNF |