The Spring Series, the beginning of the Friday Harbor Sailing Club’s racing year, opened this last weekend with a two-day event better suited to power boats.

Winds in Griffin Bay varied from zero to puffs of 5 knots. The Race Committee — Paul Barger and wife, Mary-Brooke, in their newly purchased Sun 27 sloop — did a great job in running the Series, which consisted of several short races each day.

The smaller light boats quickly outdistanced the heavier cruising types, but the vagaries of the wind and current did provide some changes of position that kept everyone’s hopes up. At the end of the Series, one hapless Texan in a heavy cruising boat with three enormous golden retrievers aboard was headed home under power when he announced on his radio that he had run out of fuel and was drifting toward the beach. Under ordinary circumstances, one would expect a sailor to just hoist his sails and continue on, but, of course, this was a no-wind situation.

Much useless advice was offered by the fleet until a Samaritan, Howard Lewis in Liberty, proceeded to his rescue and a tow to the harbor. He may be a candidate for the Sailing Club’s Bent Anchor Award.

Here are the results:

Pacific Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF)
— First: REMEDY, R. Ahbel
— Second: SCARLET de HARO, Bill VanSkyhawk
— Third: MISTRAL, Arne Bentzen
— Fourth: LIBERTY, Howard Lewis
— Fifth: LEVI. Dennis Pratt
— Sixth: ALISHONE, John Manning
— Seventh: MARIANA, Fred Hoeppner
— Eighth: C’ LA VIE, Ed Hale
— Ninth: FRAGILE HABITAT, Norris Palmer

Cruising Class
— First: PAPER MOON, Chuck Rust
— Second: NOOTKA, Jan Smulovitz

— Fred Hoeppner is a competitive sailor and a retired Navy captain.