The 2003 Express 27 Nationals saw great conditions, great competition and great camaraderie. Thanks to St. Francis Yacht Club for running the event in such a busy time of year for them. Thanks to Joy Siegel for her superb job as Regatta Chair. Thanks to our keg sponsors Quantum Sails and Santa Cruz Sails for their help in making the parties fun. Thanks to Sarah Deeds and Geoff McDonald for designing and producing the great looking t-shirts and thanks to the 21 boats who turned out to make the regatta a success.

Here is how the racing went from a Swamp Donkey point of view:

Friday

Race 1: We set-up in the Treasure Island / Berkeley Circle racing area and started Race 1 after a few general recalls in about 12 knots of breeze. Freaks on a Leash (formerly known as Madhouse) made its season debut in strong fashion with a great start and lead up the first beat as most of the fleet headed left. We started a little to leeward of Freaks and eventually tacked and ducked their transom as we neared the port tack layline. A slight speed edge allowed us to take the lead at the weather mark which we held until the finish. Freaks held off Exocet and Baffett to take second place.

Race 2: Wind picked up to about 14 knots and most of the fleet switched to the #3. Again we started near the port end of the line but must have been a half boat length back at the start as Baffet was punched out on us a couple of boat lengths to windward. As a sign of respect according to Tom, Baffett wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation and reached across our bow to put us in a very tough spot. Eventually we had to tack away and take a lot of transoms to clear our breeze. Sailing in bad air is sure not much fun. Eventually we cleared our air and were pushing 5th place at the windward mark when port tack Exocet attacked the starboard tack Donkey. Fortunately both boats were able to turn away at the last minute to hit side to side and avoid serious damage. After the altercation, Exocet graciously did a 720 and the Donkey managed to fight back to 6th, but the real battle was going on at the front of the fleet. Attack from Mars had an early lead but Baffett took them at the finish. Motorcycle Irene was not far behind in third.

Race 3: The breeze was up into the 18 knot + territory and the RC designated the Olympic course. In the last beat in Race 2, the right appeared to be paying. In the Circle area, I tend to like the left in the morning and the right in late afternoon especially as the ebb is further developed. Thus, we aggressively wanted the Boat end of the start and the right side. Unfortunately, we were a little late at the boat but fortunately, we were the first boat to tack right followed by Irene. The right side paid off. We kept going right until we approached layline and we were able to cross the entire fleet. A slight lead at the weather mark turned into a huge lead as we set the spinnaker and set-off on a planing reach. Both reaches were tight which allowed for some high speed racing. We left the jib up to keep the weight on the rail and the pedal down. Baffett and Irene demonstrated good boat-handling in the reaches and good upwind speed to take second and third.

The Quantum sponsored keg and chips and salsa tasted great after the long beat back to St. Francis after racing especially for the consistent crew of Baffett who had a one point lead over the Donkey after Day One.

Saturday

Race 4: The wind was light and shifty in the morning which caused a slight delay before starting in 8-10 knots of breeze. The RC set course B which made sense to me, Starboard rounding Windward - Leewards. As Regatta Developer, I made sure the starboard rounding course was added because of the tide in the first race on Saturday and Sunday on the City Front would likely see competitors playing the beach upwind and the outside downwind. Again I was late to the start and was stuck in the gas of Bruce Schwab who was skippering Diane. Diane led up the beat and was first at the mark. We tacked away at the start and quickly found a lane and played the shifts to climb into third at the windward mark right on the heels of the leaders. We gybed away from the pack early along with Mirage and found some puffs to ride into first approaching the leeward mark. This ended up being our downfall. We rounded the leeward mark to starboard and much to my chagrin saw the rest of the fleet rounding to port. My crew straightened me out and guided me back to unwind our string and reround the mark in the correct direction. Whooops. That will teach me to read the sailing instructions especially my own. I never saw the typo that mysteriously had one port rounding in a starboard rounding course. We ended up eighth and Mirage went onto the victory with Baffet mounting a great comeback to finish second.

Race 5: The Donkey was in a tough spot. With only 3 races left. We had an seven point deficit to Baffett. We were going to come out swinging on this 16 mile distance race. Most of the fleet switched to the #3 between races and we had ours on deck to make it look like we agreed with the fleet consensus, but we decided to go for it and put on the #1 at the four minute gun. We fought aggressively with Irene and won the favored pin and tacked and crossed the fleet 30 seconds later. We had a few boatlength lead around Blackaller, Harding, Yellow Bluff, X and #7 with Irene, Mars and Baffett tightly bunched behind us. We were worried that Baffet could make a big move on the long beat up from #7 to Blackaller so our goal of that long beat was to make sure that Baffett remained in fourth. We gave Mars clear air to make their charge and kept on tacking on Irene until they tacked on Baffett. The plan worked and we took the gun and gained back three points on Baffett.

After a class meeting where we picked Richmond as next year's Nationals location (Thanks Josh Grass for volunteering to run the event) and discussed the merits of the fleet doing Encinal Midwinters instead of Berkeley Midwinters this year, we had a well attended Mexican dinner and party with the fun band, Shark Sandwich. Thanks to Dave Hodges and Santa Cruz Sails for their keg sponsorship which made the party a success.

Sunday

Race 6: With a four point deficit to Baffett and Irene only two points on our heels, we decided that we would not engage in a match race with Baffett but would just try and win the race and see what we needed to do in the final race to beat Baffett. However, starting to leeward of Baffett was too tempting, and we started two boatlengths below them on the unfavored port end of the line. We eventually pinched up to their line and forced them to tack away, but unfortunately, we could not tack and cross the fleet by the time we reached shore and had to take some transoms and did not have a good lane. Meanwhile, Baffett found a good lane and was ahead of us. We nailed some shifts late in the beat to pass some boats and rounded the windward mark right behind Baffett who was trailing Magic Bus. On the downwind leg, Irene gained inside overlap on us and put us two spots behind Baffett. Recognizing that we lost Irene, we had an early takedown so we could have a very high speed and tight leeward mark rounding. Since the shore was favored, it was critical to hold our starboard tack lane. The rounding worked and we were able to lift off Irene and maintain clear air. The adrenaline was pumping on the Donkey as we recognized that we needed to make our charge and pass Baffett on this leg. We were at the upper end of the genoa and the crew made excellent calls on the windshifts and pulled off perfect tacks. We were now close enough to the leaders that we ducked Baffet and gained starboard advantage which we used at the mark to get ahead of them. On the downwind leg, we chased Magic Bus as Baffet and Irene chased us. Exocet did an end around on the whole fleet and moved into first by playing the outside. We came into the leeward mark in second overlapped with Magic Bus and Baffett but had the advantage of switching to the #3 downwind. The wind had piped up and my crew pulled off a jib change which was called for when we were only a hundred yards from the mark. Those guys are good. We finished overlapped with Exocet which took the gun and Baffett had fallen to fifth! We now had a chance and controlled our own fate. We were all tied up going into the last race.

Race 7: The wind was pumping in the 20 knot range. We had to beat Baffett so that was our focus. At 20 seconds we had them right where we wanted them. We were too leeward of them and had them stuffed almost head to wind right on the line. I looked down the line however at our line-site and in the ebb tide, I was convinced that we were both going to be over the line. We turned down at ten seconds to avoid being over. I thought we were in great shape as Baffett did not have time to duck down. Ooooops. "All Clear" was the call from my crew. Baffett was a half boat length forward on us and quickly moved onto our breeze. We found a lane to tack out, took some transoms and started our charge through the fleet. It looked like Baffett was winning as we were sitting in fifth midway through the first beat. We had good speed and nailed some shifts to cut the distance between us and Baffet. Like the previous race, we took Baffett's transom a few boat lengths short of the port layline which would give us the starboard tack advantage coming into the windward mark (to be rounded to starboard). This is a powerful position and we tacked onto starboard right at the mark with the port tack Baffett realizing that they could no longer cross us. We saw that Baffett would have to duck us and intentionally came out of our tack onto starboard very slow and high. If Baffett was ducking us, I wanted to make the duck as painful as possible to let some other boats in between us. We were going so slow that after ducking us Baffet could no longer clear Exocet which was charging up on the starboard tack layline. Fitting with good sportsmanship, Baffett recognized their foul on Exocet and quickly did a 720. This clinched the regatta for the Donkey as we went on to win the race and Baffet could only climb back to sixth. This was a role reversal from the 2001 Nationals where the Donkey had to do a 720 on the final race which helped clinched the win for Baffet. I can feel your pain, Tom.

Baffett sailed a great regatta and we were lucky that they had some bad breaks on Sunday, but luck is part of sailing so we will take it. It was great to have Will Paxton and his professional crew back on the race course. I think the paid pros from the Farr 40 fleet really enjoyed their weekend off from paid racing to do some fun sailing on Motorcycle Irene. After three days in the boat at Nationals, Will declared that Irene and the crew would be fully up to speed on Monday. Good thing for all of us that the regatta ended on Sunday!

The top of the fleet was not a 3 boat battle as it has been in years past. A lot more boats are going fast. At least 10 boats led races at mark roundings. Brendan Busch has Attack from Mars going very fast and finished fourth. Exocet started and finished the regatta strongly to finish fifth. Freaks on a Leash with Mike DeVries skippering on Friday and owner Scott Parker skippering on Saturday and Sunday won an award for being the top finisher among new boats. Special recognition also goes out to Ergo and Radio Flyer who made the trip up from Monterey. Both boats finished the regatta strongly in the breeze of the final race.

I encourage anyone in the fleet to ask me or any of the other fast boats any questions on tuning or boatspeed. We find the following elements are critical to good Donkey boatspeed.