1997 RACE WEATHER
 The Race was to start on Friday the 22nd at 1800 hrs, but do to high wind and waves the race committee postponed the race until Saturday morning.  Some of the reasons for this decision follow.
 1. The racers would have little time to acclimate themselves to the rough weather before nightfall    would set in.

2. If a yacht wished to withdraw a few hours into the race, it would have been more difficult to return to port under darkness.

3.  There had been a racing tragedy due to weather just weeks before in a nearby town.

At the skippers meeting on Friday there was no complaints about this decision and in retrospect it was the right decision to be made.
 
The following maps are forecasts made by Ohio State University.  Displayed is the Wind forecast followed by the Wave Height forecast.  These are interesting to look at and show why the boats that chose the American shore made out.  For the most part these forecasts were accurate for the conditions seen on the race course.  Comments follow some of the maps when we disagreed .
 
 
 

We were sleeping on the boats.  It was raining and blowing
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
At the start of the race most boats had full mains and either a #2 or #3 up.
By 1000 most boats had reefed.   The Wind direction close to shore was WNW
 
 
 
The waves were short 4 ft waves with a few 6ft mixed in.
This was great seasickness weather !
 
 
 
We were seeing West winds at 15 to 20 knots.
The fleets location was a third of the way to Cleveland
 
 
 
 
Look close at the wind along the shore.  The boats that were sailing in the surf with the left hand shore were making out.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is when most of the boats were making the tack across the lake from just East of Cleveland
to Canada to pass between Point Pelee and Pelee Island
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shift everything on this map 1 inch to the left and you have what we saw.
At daybreak most boats were sailing with full mains and #1s in 5 to 10 kts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The wind has gone SW and most boats are close reaching the last 30 NM
We are seeing increasing wind.  Down with the 1s and up with the 2s.  A while later
Reef the main.  A while later up with the 3s.
 
 
 
We were seeing 1 to 1.5 meter waves between grecian shoal and the finish
Hail to a great committee boat for sitting from 0800 till 1800 in these conditions.
At the finish there is some current from the Detroit river outflow.  Combine this with opposing winds from the south made for a fun day for the committee boat.
 
 
 
 Back To The 1997 Race
 

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