On another day a first place was conceded to the Rhodes so the rest of division could half a 21-mile course extending out into open water to the south and, sail a more sedate "cruisers style" race for second and third places.  This was the 29th rendition of LOWISA (Lake Of The Woods International Sailing Association) but the first for a boat such as ours'.  As you might imagine, we explained leeboards many times, but Minnesotans and their cousins the Canadians are nice folks, so no problem.  The fleet numbered 87 boats ranging from a 45ft Ninesuch down through numerous faster sloops such as J-boats, clear down to a Newport 16.  Our division included the Newport, a Montgomery 17, and the Rhodes 19, which could have competed in division 3 were it to have wanted to use the spinnaker kept stowed below.  None in our group were dedicated racers and so just getting the start right was a puzzle at first.

The course measured just over one hundred miles (more after tacking) which was divided into six days of racing.  Wednesday was a layover day at Sunset Lodge Resort on Oak Island, in U.S. waters.  American boats avoid customs problems by securing Remote Area Boarder Crossing Permits by mail in the weeks prior to the event. I don't know what Canadian boats do.  These permits allow one to crisscross the boarder at will over a finite period.

The launch was at a marina about ten miles east of Kenora, Ontario at the far north end of the lake.  Lying within the Canadian Shield, like Georgian Bay, the scenery is similar.  Forestation is mostly conifer, with birch here and there.  The granite color is more pink, but it'll knock off hunks of leeboard just the same.

While at Oak Island I learned several facts concerning wildlife aboard the express boat to the liquor store to obtain another case of ballast.  The fish revered by Minnesotans as Walleye are "Pickerel" to Canadians; Northern Pike are "Jackfish"; and Bald Eagles are not rare enough to be remarkable; "We know they are your national symbol, or whatever, but they're really quite common up here, eh?"  One specie we found very remarkable was the White Pelican, which were more common that gulls in the waters we sailed.

By midweek we'd gotten to know the couple from St. Cloud, MN in the Montgomery 17, YELLOW ROSE, as well as the two guys in the Newport 16, SNIFF III.  Completing the nightly raft was a family of five in a second division McGregor 26, EDNA MAE, whose skipper was a brother of YELLOW ROSE's skipper.  All of us had first considered joining the LOWISA Cruise Week but had ended up in Race Week for various reasons.  While a good part of the fleet whooped it up each night in giant star rafts which had one or two gaps for inflatables to zoom through, the first division "We're slower than we look" bunch sought a niche of our own for civilized conversation.  The Rhodes, meanwhile, attached itself to a chartered houseboat serving two Hobie 18's, so they were able to avoid carrying their considerable duffle throughout each day's race. The comradery of the small cruisers was noticed by the race committee, we later heard.

Both the Montgomery and the Newport were faster than Pil-Pel upwind, though on one afternoon when we raced through thunderstormes Pil-Pel double-reefed and passed the reefed Newport handily.  We thought we were gaining on the Monty, too, but the race was called before we actually could accomplish that. A REPAX boat (Radio Equipped Powered Auxiliary) towed us within three miles of the anchorage at Oak Island, so that our arrival after the storm with a single reef when two would have been better was recognized as a "keen" piece of boat handling.  Earlier in the week a REPAX towed us nine miles to the anchorage when the wind ceased entirely. That is the main thing we didn't like about this racing business; heading out on a circuitous route when you know very well there won't be suitable wind for a twenty-mile passage.  Not having a radio ourselves, we heard from YELLOW ROSE that REPAX often referred to us as "that Viking Boat" because of the oars and pointed stern.  Once when we took a legal shortcut over shoals between two islands that every-one else skirted, two REPAX filled the airwaves with nonsense about how we would run hard aground for sure and they wouldn't be able to go in close enough to haul us free. We didn't even bump of course.