With Williwaw as the committee boat the Red flag goes up and Sea Wench crosses the line within 10 seconds with a crew of two first time sailors and a seasoned skipper on Port. Raven crosses next on starboard about 1:30 late then Mirage within 15 sec of her start time taking Ravens stern on Port. Followed less than a minute later by Blown away then Noatak, Radiance, and Finally Williwaw all on Port. The Wind was to port. Mirage overtook Sea Wench fairly rapidly and held the port tack until spooked by a large Kenai Fjords ship onto a starboard tack. After settling on to the new tack the surprised crew realized the wind had shifted allowing them to reach for the mark! Mirage rounded the windward mark first followed by Blown Away then Noatak. Mirage reached off toward the East (a mistake) while Blown Away and Noatak trended toward the West side. Mirage lost momentum in the light conditions on the east side while Blown Away and Noatak battled it out trading the lead a few time until at the last Noatak caught a puff and slid in front of Blown Away to take first by less than a boat length. Mirage by this time was reaching back in from the east taking third about 50 seconds behind Blown Away, followed by Williwaw a few minutes later then Radiance. At about this point the light conditions continued to fade. Leaving Raven and Sea Wench virtually becalmed. Raven finally managed to catch a few Zephyrs and ghost her way across the finish line followed sometime later by Sea wench. By this time the rest of the Fleet was becalmed at the start line with nary a breath of wind to be found. There was no Second race....
Fourth White Sail Race Results
1st-Noatak
2nd- Blown Away
3rd- Mirage
4th- Williwaw
5th - Radiance
6th - Raven
7th - Sea Wench