The regatta itself was organized by our fleet captain, Jason Crowson and
Brad Pennington of Chimo. The RYC race committee did a fine job in setting
the line and course. The courses were straight windward / leeward using
weather marks with offsets and a leeward gate. The length of the course
legs along with the five races was a format that I'd like to see repeated.

The course racing was held in conjunction with the Santana 22 Nationals.

The first race on Saturday saw a long starting line with a left hand bias.
Chimo was the only boat to truly recognize this and had a big lead coming
off the pin end. Baffett followed Brad after he tacked to port and caught
him at the weather mark. Brad passed us back downwind and extended for the
win while Exocet took third.

Magic Bus had missed the first race but was there for the remainder of the
regatta. After Brad's big first race start more boats wanted the pin end and

there was a fight to see who could hit that end at the start. Brad and
another
boat were forced over early and on Baffett we thought we had the perfect
start
at the pin. Unfortunately, after sailing upwind for about a minute and half
and
some confusion from the RC, Baffett returned to the start line. We had a
good
view of lots racing in front of us while Exocet sailed off for a big win.
The
breeze had come up to about 18 kts at this point and we were starting to see

some downwind crashes (including one on our own boat.) Luckily the course
was twice around and with the tight racing going on ahead of us we were able

to catch back up and finished second. Magic Bus third. Chimo had been right
up there with Exocet but approaching the weather mark broke a lifeline and
put
two people into the water. While one person was able to immediately scramble

back on board, the second took a bit more work and Brad decided to retire
from the race.

For the last race on Saturday the wind had built to around 20 to 25kts with
perhaps some bigger puffs and a pretty good chop. I'll keep the story short
and say that Baffett was well over a minute late to this start. By the time
we regained contact with the fleet, Exocet was off to a big lead with Magic
Bus in second. Heading to the second weather mark Magic Bus overstood a bit
and we tacked below them. We had a great drag race with Baffett trying to
stay bow out and Paul trying to roll over us. Exocet was way out in front
but
sailing higher and slower. Around the weather mark it was Exocet, Baffett
and Magic Bus in very close order. Exocet had a great set and was launched
downwind, Baffett lost the spinnaker halyard on the set and Magic Bus also
took off. By the time we regained our halyard it was time to gybe. We gybed
onto port and set. Exocet had some problems and we were able to pass them
while Magic Bus had sailed off to an enormous lead. The finish was in that
order, Magic Bus, Baffett and Exocet.

Saturday evening was the Express BBQ led by Brad with his fast food
restaurant experience. Jason and his crew pitched in serving up
hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Boca burgers and a keg of beer. Combine
that with sailing stories and a club where you can keep your hat on.
What more could you want?

Sunday was a beautiful day on the bay. Windy enough to plane and surf but
not overpowering, warm enough at the club for just shorts and t-shirts.
Two races were held in these ideal conditions. In the morning there was
a bit more southerly in the breeze and the first leg had a definite port
tack bias. But the starboard end of the line was the place to be and we
saw lots of new leaders in this race. By the last weather leg, Baffett
and Magic Bus had worked to the front with some very close racing and
multiple lead changes. Baffett managed get by on the last downwind leg
and hold on for the win. Meanwhile Exocet worked their way to third.

In the last race the wind had come back up to 18 to 20 kts. While Baffett
went for a conservative start, Exocet was even more conservative waiting
until the fleet had started before crossing the line. Baffett was able to
round the first mark in front of Magic Bus and held on for the win, while
Exocet again came in third. The finish was downwind with the chute up,
planing across the line. Very nice.

While the back end of Baffett may have had some major gaffes, the crew
work was perfect and that enabled us to get back into every race. Baffett's
crew for this regatta was Nick Burke, Adam Borcherding and Jen Scaring.
Running the pit, keeping us organized and helping trim was my boat partner
Forest Baskett.

Overall, I thought this was a good regatta and would like to see more
Expresses out there next year. The course location provided an even
playing field and there were lots of opportunities for gains and losses
upwind
and down. And while it may have been cool on Saturday, it was warmer than
the City Front. Next year let's get some of the other StFYC boats over to
the sunny side of the Bay.

Tom Baffico
"Baffett"

PS.
In reading Scott's summary of the Hospice he offered some words of advice
on sailing the Expres and I'd like to repeat some of his comments where I
might be able to help. The one area in which I may be able to help some
folks is sailing to weather when it starts getting to overpowered
conditions.

For heavy air Scott says "try and depower the boat as much as possible
without luffing the sails. Here are a few simple things that we do
a) maximum backstay (main should be just about to invert)
b) Vang sheet the main. I used the traveller very little and would
ease the sheet on the puffs with a very tight vang.
c) If the main is luffing, ease the jib or move jib lead back until
it
stops."

I agree with all of the above with some variations for style and how
Baffett is set up. Here's my version of the above:
a) Backstay. Make it easily adjustable from the rail. Double end
to the rail or on a barney post. Don't rely on a stern mounted
tackle
as your sole adjustment. And when you adjust the backstay you
may need to adjust either the vang (in Scott's case) or the
mainsheet
(for my case.)
b) Scott and I get similar effects but I don't have an easily
adjustable
vang and I find it easier to repeat settings with the traveller. So
I set
twist (leech tension) with the mainsheet and then traveller up and
down. I
only adjust the mainsheet when I make bigger backstay adjustments
and play the traveller, backstay and mainsheet in that order.
c) When it is really blowing, we ease the jib. If I was better I'd
have
adjustable jib cars, but I'm not, so we don't and all we do is ease
the jib
when the wind comes up. You can do it by feel or use this back of
the
envelope method for setting the jib sheet when it's howling. With
the
backstay on, mainsheet in tight and traveller down to the stop, trim
the
jib in until it starts to backwind the main. Stop trimming the jib
and
pull the traveller up a tad. That gets us close to good trim.
d) I'm adding a "d". Keep the boat flat. After you've made the above

adjustments keeping it flat is done mostly through steering plus
mainsheet
adjustment for the vang sheeters or traveller adjustment for guys
such as
myself. Using the above techniques I never flogged my main on either
day.
(If your main is flogging, do something different!)