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| Resin Regatta at San Francisco Yacht Club | April 16 - 17 |
| Story |
| Complete Results
To keep the tradition of providing a regatta recap going, here is the blow-by-blow from Attack From Mars. Believe it or not, last weekend included the first-ever bullets for the AFM gang made even sweeter by managing to hold on for the regatta win. Our crew was myself, Curt Olinger, Chris Michini, James Hawkes, and Heather Harrington. Saturday started out with light (5-8 knot) winds from the south, and we initially headed off towards the favored pin end, though we knew that getting right on the course would be the smart move. We got pushed over early by Desperado, and had to tack and duck back to restart. Then we headed off on port behind the fleet joined by Moxie who was also headed off on port. We’d like to thank the Desperado gang for sending us over early, because getting right early really paid off! The right side of the course had a much more westerly component to the wind, and we crossed into the different breeze with Moxie. They tacked and we went a bit farther before tacking. On the way to the weather mark, Moxie got sucked back into the southerly while we were able to hold on and lay the weather mark. Mirage moved into 2nd place. After the first beat, the fleet lined up for a parade along the west edge of the course. Mirage gave a good chase for the remainder of the race but we were able to stay ahead of them for the win. The second race gave us a better breeze of 12-14 knots from the west. Most boats switched to #3 jibs (ourselves included). We wanted to go right after the start, but were a bit early and started 2/3rds of the way down the line. We had a great start and most of the fleet tacked quickly, so we were able to head right fairly soon. Moxie had nailed the committee boat end and was the first to the right. Half way up the first beat they tacked out of the corner. El Raton and another boat had to duck Moxie and we crossed ahead, so that put us in the lead half way up the beat. The ebb from the north bay was pushing hard across the course and we had to put in a couple more hitches to lay the weather mark, but led the fleet around and into the downwind leg. It was nice to have some wind pressure, and we led around the course being chased hard by El Raton the whole way. At the finish, we were just short of the line on starboard and had to put in one short tack on port to lay the (extremely short) finish line. I underestimated the strength of the north-south tidal sweep and tacked right in front of the pin. I almost fell off the boat trying to bear away and we sat in irons at the pin end trying to dump sails and not hit the pin. If we were trying to hook it as a mooring, we were perfectly set up! Finally we got it together and snuck across the line ahead of El Raton, who was screaming in from the north (and who also found the tide strong enough to make them have to do “the wiggle” around the pin end). Sunday weather called for more breeze, but it wasn’t to be. After waiting for a sea-breeze for a while the committee sent us off in another light southerly. Again, we expected a better wind angle on the right. This time we nailed the right end of the line with speed and were the first to the right. We didn’t plan well, however, and ended up heading towards the weather mark of the other course. Fortunately the fleet that was rounding that mark made it around just ahead of us and saved us from having to tack out of there. We tacked on the starboard layline, Magic Bus came across and tacked in front of us. We followed them into the weather mark, rounding in second. On the downwind leg I had a brief panic attack and jibed when I though we had entered the southerly, but that let El Raton and Moxie pass us. Magic Bus held on for the win followed by Moxie, El Raton, and us. The second race gave us a more familiar westerly wind direction, but still only light (4-8 knot) winds. We got another great start on the right and at the weather mark Magic Bus continued to dominate the day rounding in first followed by Desperado and then us. Downwind created a lot of tension, but little change and we had the same top 3 around the leeward mark. Upwind we had to battle as Magic Bus and Desperado each took turns tacking on us. At the weather mark Desperado came in on the port layline and barely squeezed in a tack underneath us at the mark, however it allowed us to slip into 2nd. The next downwind turned very light, and then a filling sea breeze piled the entire fleet up together at the leeward mark. We were overlapped inside Magic Bus, and Moxie was also inside us on starboard. The three of us rounded together with scant inches to spare and with the entire fleet in very close pursuit. On the final beat we favored the right which was painful at first but eventually paid when the wind clocked right. Magic Bus continued to show stellar speed and crossed ahead of us. Xena made out well and though we tacked on them a couple times they held on just to leeward of us. On the final stretch to the finish, Magic Bus came and tacked on us, giving us very bad air and allowing Xena to sneak out for 2nd with us in 3rd. After the final race, a puff hit the boat and Curt did the honors and went for an involuntary victory swim (beer in hand). We picked him up in short order and headed home.
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