Small, sleek and fast, Mike Cook’s Flirt beats down the Western Way en route to a Hospice Regatta win. The Center Harbor 31 led the fleet across the finish by more than 10 minutes.—STAFF PHOTOS BY STEPHEN RAPPAPORT

SOUTHWEST HARBOR — If the gods were angry at Mount Desert Island’s sailing community last weekend, they didn’t display their wrath with raging winds.

Instead, on Saturday the Hospice Regatta fleet had to contend with a light and spotty southerly breeze that led to slow finishing times, considerable frustration and more than one colorful expression of nautical angst.

Fourteen boats came to the starting line in MDI’s Great Harbor for the Hospice Regatta’s cruising division race shortly after noon. At the gun, the fleet headed down the Western Way in a soft but steady southerly. A handful of boats crossed the line early, but the time they lost in having to sail back and cross again had little bearing on the race results.

The course took the fleet out and back up the Western Way, then easterly to the East Bunker Ledge going off Islesford. From there, the fleet headed for Greening Island, with a choice of passing north or south of Sutton Island on the way. The fleet rounded Greening before finishing in Great Harbor off the Spurling Point bell.

Precious Cloud (right), a lovely Owens 41 yawl sailed by Zach Stewart, didn’t finish the light air race, but must have won an award for aesthetics.—STAFF PHOTOS BY STEPHEN RAPPAPORT

The wind made the choice of which side of Sutton Island to choose a difficult one for skippers.

“The wind was light with lots of holes,” said Greg Wilkinson, the Northeast Harbor Fleet manager who “raised flags and fired guns” at the starting line. “North of Great Cranberry it was very, very spotty, and the further north you got, the spottier it got.”

The result for the fleet was that both the northerly and southerly routes were equally good, or bad, depending entirely on a boat’s timing.

With the biggest boat in the fleet, Far Out, a Morris 52 with a wise old owl on its spinnaker, Hal Kroger was able to sail around the course in just over three hours, nine minutes, but he couldn’t save his time against Mike Cook’s pretty Center Harbor 31, Flirt. Cook finished the course in just under three hours, 25 minutes but with a corrected time of just under three hours, five minutes, he finished 10 minutes ahead of the second place boat, Henry Brauer’s J100 Reiver. Third place went to Sidewinder, Tom Rolfes’ J105.

Beating down the Western Way, a part the Hospice Regatta fleet including, (left to right) Flirt, Far Out, Gaylark, Flying Lady, and Reiver, was still tightly packed several minutes after crossing the starting line in Great Harbor.—STAFF PHOTOS BY STEPHEN RAPPAPORT

The light winds made it tough for the four boats racing without spinnakers. Three of them dropped out before the race ended, but Elliot Cohen persevered and sailed his Morris 36 Kokopelli to a first in the non-spinnaker class and an eighth place finish overall.

Starting later in the afternoon, a 13-boat International One Design fleet struggled with the desultory winds. Tony Young took first place in Sagaro followed by Bill Dowling in Mischief and John Henry in Gambler.

On Friday, Southwest Harbor hosted three races to raise funds for the Hospice of Hancock County.

In the Senior Bullseye fleet, Nell Houghton won both races to take home the bacon in First Step. In two Tempest-class races, with a first and a second, Jack Kelley, in Irrational Number,  barely edged out Ken Fox’s Ariel.

In the Luders 16 class, Welly Bacon, in Mary Jane, had a pair of firsts to beat Jock Crothers in Weetamoe.