2012 Burton Cup

Today was the 104th annual Burton Cup race around Lake Minnetonka. All the lakes yacht clubs are invited and there was over 100 boats participating representing 16 fleets, This year we had four Commanders on the line.
It was a warm overcast morning with a south wind between 5 -10 knots and a few thunderstorms skidding around nearby. The race starts in the main lake in front of the Minnetonka Yacht Club. We had the last start and a small fleet so there was plenty of room and clean air. we worked our way to windward toward the first mark outside of Excelsior Bay trading positions as we got caught on different sides of wind shifts and such. #157 was the first around the mark by 20 boat lengths, Next was The Princess followed by Ceili and then Phoenix. We rounded just as a nasty black cloud passed close by and Phoenix took advantage of the close proximity to her berth and retired from the race. As the cloud passed by it took the wind with it and the next leg, nearly down wind was fought out in calm to 3 knot winds. Ceili and The Princess caught #157 mid leg. We idled down wind within a couple of boat lengths of each other for around 1/2 mile before Ceili pulled ahead with her 135% genoa, leaving #157 and The Princess astern with our little 90% self tacking jibs. The wind started filling back in to 5+ knots just before we rounded the next mark on the north side of Big Island. Over the next leg Ceili continued to pull away but #157 and The Princess were side by side and were actually overlapped on a deep reach for the next 7 or 8 miles, neither boat able to break away. We entered Wayzata Bay to fetch the next mark and worked our way through the other fleets who had started earlier and were now exiting the bay for the finish. Ceili rounded first by a healthy 1/4 mile, then The Princess leading #157 by less than a boat length. #157 tacked away and tried to exit the bay to the west side and The Princess took the east side. The east worked out better and The princess had a nice lead coming out of the bay. Over the last few miles of the race the wind built to around 10 knots and Ceili was able to maintain her 1/4 mile lead and finish first. #157 was chipping away at The Princess's lead but ran out of race course and finished 10 boat lengths back.
Tons of fun... our burgeoning little Commander fleet had a great showing and finished pretty tight for such a long race.
Of course my camera was low on batteries so I did not get many pictures.
Pic #1 - Ceili, 3157 & The Princess heading out to the race
Pic #2 - Ceili (the blind Commander)
Pic #3 - #157
Pic #4 - Phoenix