LYC 2015 Heald Bank

The Lakewood Yacht Club annual 90 nm Heald Bank offshore race was held April 25-26. It is one of four offshore events forming the basis for the Texas Navy Trophy. Since 1971 this trophy, donated by the State of Texas, has been awarded annually to the overall winner of the PHRF Texas Offshore Racing Circuit (TORC) by the Texas Navy. The winner must enter all four races. The trophy currently resides at the Galveston Bay Cruising Association Clubhouse. The J/122 Second Star, J/120 Aeolus, J/109 Airborne, J/105 Vici, J/105 Stinger and the Ericson 38 Good Leif formed the six-boat spinnaker class. Typically run in strong spring winds, this race was characterized by extremely light winds, and was won by Bee Bednar on the J/105 Stinger with a 23:55:24 elapsed time. Stingers corrected time of 21:57:33 was 12:22 faster then the J/120 and 29:57 better then the J/122. The track in the graphic shows some of the extreme frustrations this race entailed. Speeds ranged from 0 to 8+ knots with a short burst of 12. What the graphic does not show is the dense fog that covered the race course from 2 a.m. until just a bit after sunrise. It can be just a little eerie to pop out of the fog within a few boat lengths of a big offshore oil platform. While winning was great, Stinger committed a inexcusable error. She ran out of beer!