Lake Champlain Yacht Club

In very light and shifty conditions, smaller, slower-rated boats took seven of the top 10 overall places in this year’s Ladies Cup, with John Hill’s J-70, That 70 Show, correcting out to first overall, winning the Ladies Cup.
Hill’s boat, which rates 117, was second across the finish line, behind only Kjell Dahlen’s Odinn, with a 33 rating. Odinn corrected out third behind Benedek Erdos’s Santana 2023, Lil’ Bot, which rates 168. The other five smaller boats in the top 10 carried PHRF ratings of 120 or higher.
The Hill name should be familiar to those who have followed the history of the Ladies Cup, as John’s grandfather, Bruce Hill, won it five times between 1980 and 1998 with the two-tonner Golden Dazy.
This year’s course took the 22-boat fleet from the club mark off the Burlington waterfront, around the west side of Juniper Island, the Juniper Ledge mark, back around the west side of Juniper, around the club’s Proctor mark and finished off Burlington. Winds ranged from almost non-existent to around 6 knots, and clocking throughout the race from south to northeast.

From: Bob Finn, Harbormaster
August 6, 2020

Just prior to Tropical Storm Isiais, which tracked up Lake Champlain, I cruised our harbor observing each boat for risks of damage or mooring failure from sustained extreme wave action and/or high wind. Most were well prepared but a few might take additional precautions.
Taking out random factors such as mooring location, wind direction, hull windage, and weight, this intends to identify measures boat owners can take to mitigate or eliminate risk. Also, as we have replaced 60% of the moorings with new ½” hardware, possibility of mooring failure is greatly reduced.

Factors that are within control of boat owners include:
1. Reduce windage by securing, covering, or, ideally removing, sails, dodger, bimini, awning, wheel covers.
2. Remove anchors from bow where flukes could saw through mooring pennants. A couple of boats have anchors secured to pulpit in ways that prevent contact with pennants, but most anchors on bows remain high risk factors.
3. Make sure pennant lines run fair to two strong points - one can be primary, taking the load, while the other secondary/safety. On sailboats, the mast is the strongest point, but a pennant line to it must be led fair through a bow chock.
4. Cover pennant lines with anti-chafe gear (tape does not qualify) at all possible points of contact (bobstay, anchor roller bracket, toe rail, pulpit, headstay chainplate)
5. Envision what mooring lines will do when bow buries in waves and prepare for the worst
6. If boat has a bow eye, secure a pennant with a clip to it, as the primary holding point. Most powerboats have one bow eye low on the stem. This enables boat to ride over waves rather than be pulled under by pennants secured to foredeck
7. If owners are going to be away, such as to another state, they should leave the boat in shape to ride out a tropical storm or hurricane. It may not be convenient, but it’s better than returning to a boat to find expensive canvas shredded or get a call that their boat has broken loose.