San Diego Midwinters - Saturday Races

The good, the bad and the ugly. Great breeze all day allowing the RC to get in another 3 races. We actually got 3 pretty good front row starts. Conditions (wind @ 280 deg, slight counter current) favored the right side of the course all day. The only problem is finding an upwind lane to get there.

In the first race, we did a pretty good job of finding our way right. We rounded the top mark in the top 15 and were able to pass a few boats on the run. About ditto on the second lap and we finished 10th (out of 31, we think that's good).

In the second race, we were not quite as good establishing ourselves upwind and ended up 17th (thata's bad) in a tight cluster. Interesting -- the average race time for the 4 legs was right about one hour. The maximum finish spread for the 31 boat fleet was under 3 minutes. It was really close out there.

Race 3 - Before the start, we saw significant pressure on the left side of the course. We went left on the first beat with about a third of the fleet, including some really good people. Unfortunately, the course was still right side favored and we rounded the top mark DFL. We did pick of 7 boats on the next 4 legs, but we never recovered from the first beat and finished 26th (that's ugly).

The sail back to the SDYC, which is about 4 miles upwind or on a close reach was pretty hairy with gusts to 27kt. A sailmakers delight. To top off the day, I took one step beyond as were were rafting the boat and ended up in the bay. After a hot shower and a couple of Mt Gay tonics, things did look a little brighter.

Two races on the docket for Sunday and then we pack up the boat for the trip north.

Midwinters Friday Races

The SDYC's RC got in 3 good races yesterday in a 14-16 kt breeze that clocked right most of the day. We ended up with 30 boats on the line. We got a pretty good start for race 1 in the middle of the line and sailed most of the race in the middle of the fleet. Lots of traffic at the marks which were set with a windward and offset and a leeward gate. We ended up finishing in 17th.

Our start in race 2 was not too bad, but things unwound after that. We had a tough first weather leg, hit the offset mark and had to do a turn which cost us a couple of spots. The upwind driving was interesting -- there was a 4ft west swell running that was on our beam on port tack making it a tough driving tack. On starboard, the swell was more on the nose and an easier drive.

The race 3 start was terrible, so we just pressed ahead with our go right strategy. Good things happened and we rounded the first weather mark in 2nd. We held 2nd through the next 3 marks, but felt like the breakaway riders in the tour with the peloton chasing them. The Camet boat overtook us at the finish line and we finished 3rd with Chris Busch a couple of boat lengths behind.

Craig did his normal great job up front and Steve's sail trim and tactics were strong.

Three more today. The forecast is for WSW at 10-15 with the same 4ft westerly swell.

Etchells Midwinters West San Diego - Day 1

Made it here on Wednesday to deal with some trailer issues which involved making my annual donation to the Aros Trailer Supply gods to ensure that we get at least another 1337 miles when we head north on Monday.

Bill McGown who was scheduled to do our middle came down with whatever yuck is currently infecting Bellingham and had to cancel. I spent most of yesterday scrambling to find a replacement. Fortunately, someone else had to bail out and Steve Pickel from North Sails is joining us for the regatta. Steve, Craig and I are about 70 pounds under the limit, so we are hoping for light wind. I'd rather be 70 light than 8 pounds over like another crew here who will spend their evening in the sauna. We went out for Italian.....

It looks like we'll have 32 boats on the line today. As always it's a pretty tough fleet -- Bruce Nelson, Chris Busch (fresh from his 4th at the worlds in Melbourne), Vince Brun et al.

We have to hoist the boat for a quick wipedown this morning and get ready for the tow at 9:15.

Saturday Racing

As we thought/feared, the NE Santa Ana and the prevailing westerly spent most of the day fighting each other. We drifted around for an hour before we finally got enought wind (like 4-5 kts) for the RC to start. Lots of 30 deg. shifts to get on the wrong side of. We ended the day in 10th place with an 11-7-13 string. The 13th was kind of disappointing. We were 5th through the last weather mark and then encountered a starboard-leeward J105, followed by an agressive luff from another Etchells and had to do a penalty turn. Here are a couple of pix the show the action on Saturday.

San Diego Sunrise

Friday January 9th -

We did some tweaking on the boat and actually managed to get out for a bay sail in the afternoon. We connected with another Etchells, for some tuning, but the afternoon winds were fluky making it difficult to learn much.

We all attended a seminar on the rule changes conducted by Dave Perry at SDYC. Good presentation and some of the changes are well worth noting. When you all hear us hailing "mark room" as we enter the THREE boat length zone, you'll have it.

Forecast for today is a NE Santa Ana wind -- hot dry winds that blow strongly inland and then bounce against the westerly sea breeze. This generally produces a dead zone in the racing area or strange course orientations -- like our easterlies in B'ham.

Looks like we should have about 20 boats on the line today. Towing out at 9:30. Joyce is on RC again this year.

Outta here....

Heading South

Etchells 1149 is finally headed south. We picked Friday January 2nd as our "weather window" The pic shows how it looked that AM. We hit snow at home, snow in Southern WA, ice & snow over the Siskiyous, but we managed to keep the trailer behind us most of the way. (Advice: Get a brake controller.)

Dropped off Joyce at Sacramento and picked up Blaine for the trip south. Arrived in SD early Sunday AM after a LONG day of driving.

Race 6

The last race day! We arrived early get approval from the jury to replace our broken spinnaker pole. It's interesting, once you have your boat & sail measured and checked in, you can't make any changes. Everything has to be formally submitted to the jury. Thanks to Jon Knowles, we had a spare pole in the box and the swap was approved.

The lake was beautiful when we headed out on the tow -- 5-6 kts from the SSW. We did our tune up with Bill Hardesty in full light air mode. By the time of the first start, the wind was blowing in the mid teens from about 250 deg.

And the chop built! 84 Etchells reaching back and forth along a start line for 30 minutes really stirs things up. The RC postponed at the first attempted start to rebuild the line. The second start was a general recall -- just a well for us since we were pretty buried. The third attempt was with the "Z flag up (if you are over during the final minute, you get a 20% penalty). We were shooting for a start just to weather of the mid boat and hit the line at the gun. The boat just under us was over the line and had to bail out, leaving us with a lane to live in on starboard tack.

We tacked to the right and worked that side of the course to the weather mark. We had changed to our hight wind range GM jib and did our best to drive through the short steep waves. Lots of COLD, fresh water came on board and Craig had to pump for most of the leg.

We hit the top mark somewhere in the upper middle and immediately gybed to port to get clear of the parade. We found that you really have to work these boats down wind. Blaine trimmed the 'chute from the leeward side, Craig pumped the main from the weather side and I tried catch every possible wave.

At the leeward mark, we were able to push inside of three boats (2 of which we had inside rights on -- I think that I owe Senet Bischoff in the third boat a beer) and get a lane on port to the still-favored right side.

The last two legs were similar to the first two. Lots of waves, lots of water. We picked off several boats on the upwind leg and a couple more on the run. The finish was a full on go as low as you dare surfing contest and we crossed the line in 30th.

The photos show the start and some of the spinnaker work as well as finish. Joyce did RC on the signal boat for the entire regatta and managed to snap off a couple of these shots.

Bill sailed a conservative race to maintain his lead over Judd Smith and ended up winning the regatta -- a huge win for Bill and his team. Chris Busch from San Diego went for it and won the race to take second overall. SDYC was well represented in the top ten with Artie Means in 7th and Vince Brun in 9th.

We were able to discard the 84 point DSQ and finished 41st overall for the championship. All of us in the USA1149 team are pleased with the regatta. We had highs and lows and managed our way through them in good humor. Our condo looks like a scene from Animal House, our foulies are foul and we're ready to pack it up.

I'll offer some more thoughts later -- Tonight we party!