Spring Dinghy!

Just when you thought sailing on the city front could not get any more challenging, they throw a tsunami in the mix.
The Spring Dinghy at the St Francis yacht club was one of the most tactically challenging regatta this season to date. All weekend long the tides were crazy unpredictable due to the aftermath of the previous days tsunami from Japan's 9.0 earthquake.
The water was acting screwy, the tide was flooding when it was supposed to be ebbing. Usually you can set your watch to the currents and plan your tactics accordingly. This past weekend the currents changed each leg of the race and to throw in another element there was a huge storm front rolling through that caused a lot of huge wind shifts and a bit of moisture. Good times!

Besides mother nature throwing a bunch of curve balls at us we had a good turnout of a solid twenty boats. I was filling fired up this weekend and eager to mix it up with the local big dogs.
All weekend I had great starts, great boat speed and even better boat handling. Minus a couple capsizes that were self induced by being to aggressive down wind, my short coming was my tactics, every single leg of each race was a roll of the dice. I constantly was finding myself in the top pack and then just when I thought I had the course dialed the fleet would split in different directions and in most cases I would choose the non-favored side of the course.

Man oh man was I loving short tacking up the city front! Zero too five boat lengths from the boulder riddled shore, ripping currents, gusting wind and nineteen other boats fighting for the same space. This was my bread and butter on Saturday and I found myself constantly passing multiple boats every time the fleet ventured to that side of the course. This part of the city front always makes me nervous but for some reason this weekend I was feeling in the groove, and loving every minute of it!

I had my moment of glory when I managed to lead most of the first race on Sunday. It always is nice looking back and having a few world champions and an Olympic medalist chomping at the bit to catch up to you. It was a long race so I was loving every minute of my glory, until the lead pack joined forces and chased me down and passed me on the last leg due to a slight tactical error. Arrrrg! So I have fired my tactician and am in search of a new one for my next regatta in a few weeks. Let me know if you have any leads...Despite my tactical short comings I managed to get few solid finishes in and finished the weekend in eight place overall. I am fired up and can't wait for next months Elvstrom regatta which is held on the same waters!

Spring Keel and the Midwinters!

Let the fun begin!
We had a great first race day for our J 24 team "Little Wing" at the St. Francis Yacht clubs Spring Keel. This was only the second day with the new crew sailing together and our first day of racing. Somehow the boat owner Luther put together a solid team of rookies and veterans and managed to pull off two third place finishes for the day. This was no easy feat, we were plagued with the usual rusty crew hijynx, tangled spin halyards at the leeward mark, crash tacks and a jib sheet override at the finish line. Despite our short comings we were by far the fastest boat in the fleet, and our tactics were dead on! Not a bad start to the season, I can't wait for our next regatta! Way to go Marnie, Will, Kara(care-uh), and Luther. It is good to be back on a proper keel boat team!
The last day of the Richmond Mid-winters turned out to be a bust! There was plenty of wind on the way to the course, right as the racing was about to begin the wind shut off and the tide started ripping. So no wind and a ton of current equals a long tow back to the club and no racing. This was unfortunate, I was sitting in forth place 5 points out of the lead. All I needed was one good race and I would have been in the money. A top five finish is all good, and my fourth place warranted a beer bottle cooler. It's all about next year!