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!