Midnight Madness race ran on 18 August 2023. 19 knots sustained wind in the dark. What a ride!
Most years, Midnight Madness is a gentle parade of beautifully lighted boats, cheerfully heckling each other as they race across the Olympic circle – that’s the yellow marks in the middle of the river.
Not this year.
19 knots gusting 25, with black clouds impending doom that thankfully didn’t arrive. Two boats entered into the traditional spirit with decorative lighting. Most boats ran with bare minimum compliant lights, focusing on boat handling (and tactical stealth?) instead of decorations.
9 boats braved the elements, 7 finished the course, maybe 3 flew spinnaker (hard to tell in the dark), and all returned safely. The results are here.
My own team on J/80 Echo Beach was Dominic, James, Alex, Tiff, and Jess who had never sailed before. Max speed 11.2 knots surfing a wave under spinnaker, and we happily won first. Words heard on our boat: “I’ll enjoy this once it stops” (skipper), “it will be fine” (expert crew muttering to themselves as they contemplated a spinnaker hoist).
Thank-you to head race bosun John Gardner + team on-water, Ross Ernst for MC’ing on land, Peter Norwood for scoring, and David Morralee for promoting.
Photos: C&C27 Xel-Ha broaching over the finish line.
