What’s Lent?
The New Orleans Yacht Club/Sailing Anarchy 2009 Mardi Gras Regatta lived up to its name where the only thing Lenten about it was the 300 pounds of crawfish and shrimp consumed by the competitors on Friday. Actually, most of the sailors became seafood on Saturday as a cold front whipped through mid-racing and the winds clocked in out of the north at 25knots and built 4-5 foot seas in under 2 hours. Quite a few Finn masts acquired the infamous “brown crown” and the Moth fleet shredded the lake before shredding their sails.
Despite a few sailors missing the first couple of races because, ah, their alarms didn’t go off (they don’t call it the Mardi Gras Regatta for nothing) a massive showing by racers from all over the states, Canada, Denmark, Spain and Great Britain poured this regatta over the top like a too full pint of Guinness meeting a shot of Irish whiskey.
Brian Boyd battled it out with Andy Casey and Darrell Peck for top honors in the 33 boat Finn class, with Boyd finally taking it by one point over Casey. Chris Williams took home the honor in the Moth class while a crew from New Jersey pulled out the J/30 class win over the local 5x J/30 North American Champions, Team Zephyr. The always punchy Bay-Waveland Yacht Club took home the Mardi Gras mask trophy in the competitive GYA Capdeville racing and Charles Shade owned the Vanguard 15s. More info can be found online at www.mardigrasregatta.org
