The Great Pumpkin Regatta 2011

by Dan and Mike of Wile E. Coyote

The turnout for this year's sunny and warm edition of the Great Pumpkin was very good with 15 boats on the line for Saturday and Sunday. We had just gotten a new #1 from Santa Cruz Sails and spent a few hours the previous weekend with Will Paxton dialing it in, so we were anxious to try it out. The first race started in a light north-westerly and we got a “good” start at the pin. We had a good leg and rounded the windwark mark just slightly ahead of Opa!. On the downwind leg the wind became lighter and most of the fleet headed into the flats to get some relief from the flood. El Raton stayed out towards the middle and did well while Great White went the farthest in and also did well. As we approached the leeward mark, the RC boat set up by the mark, blasted their horn, and displayed what we thought was the S flag (signaling that the race was shortened to this mark). Apparently, it was the C flag indicating that the final upwind leg to the finish had a course change (the leg was shortened). We quickly got our spinnaker down and took off after El Raton and Great White. The final leg was a bit of a CF as the finish mark was reset a couple of times as the fleet approached. In the end, El Raton finished first and we crossed the line second only to find out later that we were OCS. Xena, who sailed very well all weekend, finished right behind.

At this point, the wind completely shut off for a while and the fleet killed time with a combination of swimming (yes it was that nice out), frisbee, football, and the random trash talking. At about 2:30 or 3:00, the wind filled in from the southwest and we got in a second race. Most of the fleet headed off on starboard for better pressure. Luffing Out Loud had a great start and led the fleet to the windward mark. We rounded second just ahead of Xena, El Raton, and Witchy Woman. As we got down towards the leeward mark, the wind got painfully light again. We managed to get around in first and held on to the lead back upwind to the finish followed by El Raton and Xena.

On Saturday we had the regular crew of Mike, Larry, and Tyler plus Tom O'Neil, who is relatively new to the program. I had to head out of town on Sunday, so Mike took the helm and his lovely wife Eleanor filled in for me. The following is Mike’s recount of Sunday’s race..

We started at the pin end of the line with Xena heading for Alcatraz. We set the kite as we crossed the start line and carried it for about 1/4 mile till the wind came forward and we went to the #1. We managed to squirt past Xena and more or less headed for Alcatraz. Xena footed off for clear air and managed to pull ahead of us and cross about 3 boat lengths ahead on port in the Alcatraz cone. We held our course and Tyler called the tack at the edge of the current line about 25 yards to leeward of Alcatraz. Xena was ahead and made a couple more tacks in the cone and headed out into the current. We continued on riding the edge of the current and managed to round the island without making any more tacks or hitting anything. At that point we were in front of Xena. We drag raced across the slot and set the kite around the Knox buoy. At that point we switched drivers and Larry drove while I trimmed. We worked our way through the middle of the strait while working the polars. Tyler watched for wind and called the jibes keeping us in the wind towards the finish. The wind clocked around to the northwest at that time and Xena went north to look for more wind while we continued straight towards the finish line. The multihulls passed us 1st about a 1/2 mile from the finish and the low raters started passing us about 100 yards from the finish. Larry drove across the finish line for his 1st ever victory.