My Best Race Ever!

Elvstrom Zellerbach Regatta @ St. Francis Yacht Club
Day One:
8-15 Knots of breeze, and a strong flood tide. The first race of the day was the one of best races I have ever had! I had a decent start on the middle of the line and decide to tack on to port right away in search of stronger breeze. It worked! While the rest of the fleet was drag racing to get to the city front to get some current relief, I was sailing in stronger breeze. I did not want to get to much separation from the fleet so I tacked back onto starboard and made my way to the city front. To my surprise I was in the lead! Shortly there after I got involved in a tacking duel with Steve Bourdow (2 time Olympic medalist), in the process Several other guys caught up and began to challenge for the lead( 2 world champion sailors). Not good... Now I was sitting in fourth place and not liking it! Some how I managed to get back in the groove and was able to get back into third place by the top mark. On the run down wind I was able to stay right on the heals of the first second place boats. On the last upwind I made some good tactical moves and was able to jump into second place! On the final down wind I sailed my butt off just to stay close to Steve, only to just miss first place by a boat length. This was my best race ever because of who I was competing against, where I was racing, and how I was able to make some great tactical decisions, and keep the boat in the groove. The rest of the day I sailed consistently in the top five but on the last legs I managed to loose a few boats, to finish the day in a solid 6th place.Day Two:
15-30 knots of breeze with a strong flood tide and a ton of steep chop. It was typical city front racing! After the start everyone would drag race over to the city front and and short tacking back and forth with in 10 boat lengths of the shore until you decide to make a break for the weather mark. It was pretty much follow the leader all day and try to keep the boat upright. In these conditions I still have not figured out how to consistently stay in the groove and I end up struggling to keep the boat going. By the third and last race of the day it was blowing in the high 20's and low 30's, after several high speed crashes while trying to avoid other capsized boats I decided to retire from the race, not wanting to risk myself or my boat. In the end I finished 8th out of 17 boats which was not to bad considering I had to use my throw out for the last race. My training partner Drake finished just ahead of me in 7th place and of course Steve Bourdow managed to win the regatta with Tracy usher in second Followed by Peter Vessella in third.

Non-Stop Fun!

OK OK! So I have been a little busy this month, and I have not had a chance to update the blog. So here is a recap of this past month to bring everyone up to speed.

Charleston Race Week:
My week consisted of the following:
-Enjoying the beautiful weather, 80 degrees and sunny.
-Working my butt off in the West Marine Rigging trailer, full filling the race participants and locals sailors with there rigging needs.
-Eating a lot of Southern Cooking (FRIED EVERYTHING!).
-Taking in the beautiful scenery/history.
-More rigging!
-More rigging!
-Some Sleep...

While I was gone at Charleston Race Week my only other rigger back at my shop in Alameda gave me his two weeks notice...
Now I am the "Head Rigger," "Assistant Rigger," and "Rig Shop Manager."
The shop is the busiest it has ever been in it's history! I get to hire an all new staff of my choice. All good things!

NorCal Regatta at Santa Cruz Yacht Club
The race was cancelled due to to much wind and thunderstorms.
35-40 Knot winds with huge waves and possible lightning!
It has been postponed to May 8th and is now just a one day event.

Big Dinghy at Richmond Yacht Club

Day One: 4 races 20 boats 8-12 knots of breeze out of the west with light to heavy chop on the South Hampton Shoals. In race one I struggled to find the shifts, and hit a mark to finish in 13th place. Arrrg! In the next 3 races I finished in 6th place. I was consistently in the top three, I had great starts, great tactics, though I consistently lost boats on the last short upwind. It was a great day and could not keep the smile off my face! I finished in 8th place overall.

Day Two: Pursuit Race! 0-5 knots of breeze out of any direction, a bunch of current and 80+ degrees out. The fleet consisted of 30 boats ranging from Lasers too Hobie 20's too Aussie 18's. The slowest boats start first, which meant that the Lasers were first. My training partner Drake and I matched raced each other for an hour or so swapping back and forth for first place. Good Times! Eventually we went our own way and the rest of the fast boats caught up to us and passed us, just in time for the wind to die. After 2 hours of attempting to sail we eventually called it quits and got a tow back in. Overall it was a fun race, and it is to bad that we could not finish. There is always next year!

Thursday Night Laser Series
The beginning of this month was the start of the Thursday Night Treasure Island Series. This is a regatta that happens every Thursday after work at the Treasure Island Sailing Center. We usually get 10-15 Lasers and 4-6 races in. It is a blast! Unfortunately the Laser fleet went on strike from the event for the first couple weeks. We were fighting against a recent race/launch fee that the facility was going to charge just the Lasers and not the other fleet that races there the same night. We negotiated and the fee was removed and now we can all go racing! Last week was my first week and I managed to finish consistently in the 12 boat fleet with 6 races and I finished in 3rd place overall! Oh Yeah!!!!

Charleston Race Week!

I will be out of town all of next week for work... I will be working out of our Mobile Rig shop in Charleston South Carolina, for the annual Charleston Race Week. There are over 200 boats signed up for the event and we will be supporting their rigging needs. I have never been to Charleston, I here it is a beautiful place to visit. I will do my best to take a lot of photographs and report on my findings while I am there.
In case you did not all ready know but I am a rigger for West Marine Rigging. Basically I run a rigging shop in Alameda California where we do custom work on sailboats. Rope and wire our my business! We do anything from making dock lines too halyards too climbing up masts and replacing the wires. It is a challenging job that I enjoy and allows me to be even more involved in the sailing community!

I Survived My First Mid-Winters West!

The Last Day! After an on shore postponement followed by several on the water postponements we did not start a race until 2:00. By the time the race started it was blowing a steady 18 knots with gust into the low 20's out of the west, with a ton of chop and 1-3 foot waves. Game on! I had a great start at the boat end of the line, finally! I did a great job of holding my position on the line, making sure that I had clear air above me and a good hole below to power up. I played the middle left of the course which worked out well. At the top the course I was in the top 20, though I gambled on my port approach to the weather mark. Usually this tactic works OK, but in this fleet there was not a single gap in the boats turning down wind. I was the forced to take evasive action and turn downwind with them in attempt to get threw the line of boats. This worked out OK, though I lost ten or more boats. To make things worse I was so excited to get around the top mark that I forgot to round the offset mark. Arrrrrrrg! I then turned around and sailed back up course and rounded the offset mark.
I was now in last place by a huge distance! Not to be discouraged I focused on my strong point and that is down wind sailing in breeze. Half way down the run I caught up to the fleet and by the time I rounded the bottom mark I passed 6 boats. Back at the top of the course I some how managed to pass a few more boats to put me in 40th place. On the last down wind which consisted of a reach then a run then one more reach I put the pedal down and caught a few more boats, some of which were flipped over and stuck in the mud. In the last upwind sprint to the finish I found myself in a match race with my nemesis, I had to dig deep for some extra energy to beat him, and luckily GU was on my side to give that extra bit of energy when I did not i had it in me. I was able to pass my nemesis to finish in 33 place.
Overall this was an extremely challenging regatta. I got a lot of big fleet experience and a chance to sail against the top guys in the country. I broke my curse of bad starts and now I can move forward. I finished the regatta in 38th place out of 56, It was a well fought for position that I am proud of. My boat speed and pointing was equal to the guys in front and some how I was able to consistently sail through the fleet and consistently pass boats. This regatta gave me a lot of experience to build on, and I look forward to my next regatta.

Mid-Winters West Day 2

If only I could get a good start! . In case you couldn't guess I had bad starts all day long. I did get one good start, only to have it destroyed by a port tacking boat that I could not avoid and I managed to hit it. Proceeding the contact, I found myself at the back of the pack yet again! We had three races today the first two were in light winds out of the North and the last race was in moderate to heavy conditions, all three of my finishes were in the mid 30's.
The good news is that other than my starts the rest of my racing is going great! I am pointing higher and faster than most of the boats around me, my downwind speed is still strong I am making less tactical errors and I am consistently passing boats on every leg..
My focus right now is obviously on starts, if I could get a decent start I might actually have a chance at finishing a race in the top half of the fleet. So I have come to the conclusion that I have a mental block with my starts. In past season my starts have been my bread and butter, not the case this season. So I have narrowed it down to two theories: The first being that I am way to focused on what is going on around me and not focused on what I am doing or what I need to be doing. My second theory is that every since I got my brand new boat I have become very protective of it and I am worried that it is going to get damaged if I am to aggressive at the starts. My goal for tomorrow is to work on these issues and hopefully I will have some great starts and get back to focusing on sailing away from the pack and not trying to catch back up!.

Mid-Winters West Day 1

Let the fun begin! 55 Lasers and 50 Radial lasers (smaller sail than the full rig laser, for lighter sailors), several past world champions, a few Olympians, the Canadian Olympic team and a bunch of the best laser sailors in the country!

Race 1: 2-5 knots of breeze out of the north west, 68 degrees, smooth water and a trapezoid windward leeward course. I had a great start on the middle of the line closer to the pin end. I immediately tacked onto port and found myself in a clear lane and was pointing higher and sailing faster than any of the boats around me. Three-quarters of the way up the fist leg I found myself in the top ten! Unfortunately the wind shifted severely enough and the race officials decided to abandoned the race!

Actual Race 1: 8-12 knots of breeze out of the west, 65 degrees, bit of chop and a trapezoid windward leeward course. After two general recalls (this is where a majority of the boats prematurely started so the race committee was forced to restart the race), I ended up with a bad start on the middle of the line with out a clear lane. I quickly learned with this big of a fleet that clear air was a must! After struggling to find some clear air I eventually got in a groove and was able scrape by with a 38th place finish. Arrrrrg!!!!!

Race 2: 12-18 knots of breeze out of the west, 60 something degrees, a bunch of chop with a few big waves mixed in and a trapezoid windward leeward course. I had an OK start at the boat end of the line, I was immediately fouled and in the process I got sucked to the back of the pack! Now that I was in the back of the fleet there were plenty of clear lanes to sail in. I was then able to make a few tactical moves and get into at least 40th place. On the down winds I was extremely fast and made up for lost ground , and finished the race in 31st place.

Race 3: same conditions as last race except with a bit more chop and a trapezoid course. I went for a pin end start, which was highly favored! THe top guys in the fleet were breathing down my neck and at the last second I was forced to bail out at the last second due to the tide forcing me into the pin end boat. This was not good! I had to jib away and the I proceeded to duck half of the fleet before I could cross the start line safely. I immediately found a clear lane and was finally able to work on some tactics, like thinking about wind shifts and stuff. I rounded the top mark in the low 30's and was able to hold that position all the way to the bottom mark where I got into a slight confrontation with about a dozen boats. I was the inside boat at the leeward mark and some how another boat disagreed with my position and sailed his boat right into the side of mine causing a big pile up of boats. He claimed that I was at fault and tried to protest me, I denied his protest and politely explained the rules that he broke. In the end I finished the race in 37th place and was not protested.

With day one complete I am not to happy with my standings, though I feel that other than my starts I am sailing extremely well for my first time in a "Big" Laser regatta. I hope to build on what I learned today and hopefully have some better starts with some even better finishes tomorrow. Most importantly I was having fun out there today! Not to give any excuses, but I will anyways. I managed to catch a virus while I was down in Long Beach last weekend and its been kicking my butt all week! I am hoping it will die off any time now and let me enjoy the regatta a bit more.

Long Beach or Bust!

We made it! My wife Keely and I made the long journey down to Long Beach. We made a slight detour to stop off at our old college stomping grounds in San Luis Obispo for some dinner at Firestones Bar and Grill. The best place for tri-tip sandwiches and fries in the world!

Saturday: 5-10 knots of breeze, 75 degrees and very choppy water. The first race had a steep learning curve to it. I struggled to get in a groove and found my self at the back of the pack, I finished 13th out of 16 boats. Second race I was able to find a rhythm to the chop and I finished the race in 5th, within boat lengths of the leaders. The third and forth race I struggled again as the chop increased and the wind decreased. I finished 12th in the 3rd race, and I ended up in 9th in the 4th race.

Sunday: 5-10 knots of breeze, 70 degrees and very choppy water. The whole day I was plagued by bad starts. As well as bad starts I still could not consistently stay in a groove up wind. The only thing that I had going for me the whole weekend was my downwind speed. I was consistently passing 3-5 boats on every downwind leg. By the last race I finally figured the place out and was able to hang with the pack, it was a little to late... My finishes for the day were an 11th, 10th and 11th.


Overall it was a tough weekend of racing for me. I struggled to find a groove upwind in the chop. My downwind speed was amazing, and my starts were terrible. I finished the event in 11th place out of 16 boats. Even though my results were not what I was expecting, the weekend was an overall success. I went to this regatta with the intention of getting two days of solid practice in before Mid-Winters West, and that was exactly what I got. I learned a ton from those guys down there, and hopefully it will pay off this weekend at Mid-Winters West!