Sarcoma Write Up Sunday Distance Race August 26 2012 by Dan Pruzan

Nat put on another great regatta and it was great having Tom, Eric, Sherry, and the rest of the Witchy Woman gang back out with us again. Sunday was a pursuit race with a course we’ve never done before. The start was at Olympic Circle E with a beat to YRA 7, from there you could go around Angel Island in either direction before rounding YRA 7 again and finishing back at Olympic Circle E. We underestimated the time it would take us to get from BYC to the start line and barely got there in time for our start. From the start we headed south towards the tip of Treasure Island with, I believe, most of the fleet. I think El Raton and Peaches tacked to port off the line and took a northerly approach to the windward mark. In the end, there wasn’t much between either choice as it was Peaches, Get Happy, El Raton, us, and Witchy in that order around the windward mark. The five of us went clockwise around Angel while Great White (who I believe rounded 6th) decided to try the CCW route. There was decent breeze up to and through Raccoon Strait. Witchy stayed the closest to the north shore of Angel Island and that paid off well with enough breeze and good current relief. The boats that headed towards the center of the straits lost ground. The big call was how close to cut the east side of angel. The wind was more filled in than usual and Witchy, El Raton, and WEC tried cutting it pretty close. As the wind got lighter, we decided to cut our risks and gybed away from the island. Get Happy was sailing the furthest to the east, and we gybed back onto starboard about halfway between them and the others. As we got away from the lee of the island and out into the slot, we had a slight lead over Witchy. Get Happy was moving well, but had some extra distance to cover, and El Raton and Peaches were close behind. Witchy rounded YRA 7 just ahead of us and we both gybed onto port heading to the finish. The following three stayed on starboard around the mark and headed towards TI. About halfway to the finish, Witchy gybed to starboard. Figuring that Tom wasn't completely right in his head after his horseback riding accident (his words not mine), we decided not to follow him. As we approached the finish line on opposite gybes it was very close, but we managed to cross the line a boat length ahead of them. It was a challenging course with some very tight racing. At some point in the race, each of the top five boats held the lead. The Wile E Coyote crew did a great job including Mike, Ty, Allison, and Eleanor.