Lake Champlain Yacht Club

I learned from his son that John Williams died yesterday (Tuesday, Dec 26), at age 98. John became a member of the club in 1963, and was commodore in 1968-69. In the early years he owned and raced a classic Sparkman & Stevens Six Meter wooden sloop that he named "Sue" because that was about all that would fit on its small stern. Later he owned and raced a yellow Paceship 23 Bluejacket, also named "Sue".

San Francisco gave everyone a "head fake" on Day 3 of the Star World Championship. With a forecast for little to no wind we were once again postponed ashore for an hour. After a slow tow down to the racecourse and lunch on a glassy bay, the forecast seemed right on target. But a break in the cloud cover beyond the Golden Gate fooled the weatherman, and the breeze came on quickly, building from zero to twelve knots in just a few minutes. We were quick to make adjustments to our setup transitioning from light to medium air and got down to business.

It is nice when your hard work and preparation starts to come together. After a week of training, long days for our coach measuring the currents on San Fran Bay, and months of planning we kicked off Day 1 of the Star World Championships with a solid second place finish. There is still a long list of things to improve upon and we still have our debrief before bed, but we are off to a good start.