Jason Crowson:

We left StFYC at 10 am with a warm southerly breeze of

about 10 knots this morning. When we arrived at

Olympic Circle, it seemed like the threatening weather

had kept most of the fleet in port. I think only 6 Express

27's were on the line for the starting gun; not the 25

plus we had been hoping for. It wasn't till later that we

heard the hoist was not operating in Richmond Yacht

Club when we arrived back in SF this afternoon.

Couldn't have been a better day for sailing! Warm,

mostly sunny and 10 to 15 knots of breeze. We got a

good start and rounded the first weather mark with a 2

boat length lead over Baffett and Swamp Donkey.

Bessie Jay apparently slowed down Baffett at the start

and we were to the right nearer the committee boat with

clear air. The next leg was a tight reach under

spinnaker followed by a run down toward Berkeley.

The leeward mark rounding was again close; within 2-

3 boat lengths for the first 3 boats. We went left,

looking for more breeze and found it heading upwind to

the weather mark. The last run was a drag race and

duel between our boat and Baffett. We traded jibes all

the way down the course. Right before the leeward

mark, an overtaken Olson 30 gave Baffett an

opportunity to jibe toward the mark. We had to

head up and then jibe immediately around the Olson

and do a weather drop immediately before the mark.

We rounded the mark with Baffett a few feet behind.

The last leg up the course was a tacking duel with each

of us looking for the side with greater wind pressure.

We covered Baffett right up to the finish line with their

great effort bringing them over the line only seconds

behind!

Jason; thanks for all your help and support in

preparing our boat and taking your time to weigh in

Elise this past week.

My hat is off to the fleet for such a great day on our first

race with Elise. Thanks toTom Baffico, Bradford

Whitaker, Robert Brown for their warm welcome. I

thank Seadon Wijsen, Dennis George, John Collins

and Steve Marsh for joining me on the maiden voyage

and race of Elise.

Joe Andresen