Santa Cruz June Open - Matthias Kennerknech

Last weekend the Santa Cruz Yacht Club hosted the 505 fleet for some great racing. Even though a lot of the boats are already in the container going to the worlds we still had a turn out of 12 boats at the starting line. PRO Beau Vrolyk introduced the concept of a pursuit race to the fleet that he would try as a non-counting race at the end of the day. Everyone seemed excited to try it.

The weather pattern in Santa Cruz over the last week was nuclear, during the week the breeze came up into the 30s and almost hit 40 during parts of the day. Even Friday it blew, the forecast for Saturday was a bit of the same and everyone was preparing for a tough day on the water. Turns out a forecast is just a forecast. The breeze started the day left of "normal" around 10 knots. Throughout the day it picked up a bit to 15kts and shifted back to "normal". After a bit of a course flag snafu (course 5 was hoisted, there were only 4 courses in the SIs) the RC figure out that they had the FD SIs still on board, a quick cleanse of those and off we went on a double sausage course. The story for Saturday was whether to go left for potential breeze or go right for the geographical advantage. Both scenarios paid at different times of the day which kept the racing interesting. The "black boat" lead the day after three races. Rob Woelfel followed right behind. Bruce decided to try single handling a three sail reach when Dave's trap adjuster line broke in race 2.  Pat Diola showed speed as well finishing the day in third. Reeve was kind enough to strap a two boat trailer to his VW golf and bring the "blue boat" up for Paul and Skip to sail. After racing the yacht club hosted a great burrito night. With the new beautiful deck done and an unusually warm evening the sailors enjoyed sharing stories and some skippers were even heard asking for a second burrito.

Sunday's forecast was for lighter breeze than Saturday, once again a forecast is just a forecast and the racers were greeted with a building breeze that finished the day around 18-20 knots. Two races were scheduled for the day, Rob W started the day strong with a bullet. Patrick finished second yelling something about eating less burritos as Matthias followed behind. Justin showed good boat speed all day. Reeve had speed bursts and Skip was going strong for his first time in a 505. Race two was sailed in defcon 1 reef state and the big boys showed they can carry their weight in the breeze. Dave pulled the correct call on the first down wind and jibe set passing 2 boats down wind to take the lead. With a foul in the spin halyard Dave had a bit of trouble dousing at the last leeward mark and gave up the lead. Rob W came in right behind Dave and Justin wasn't far behind them. With the breeze still strong Beau decided to try the experiment. Here are the basics:

-          3 stage start, 3 groups of boats.

-          Last 3 finishing boats for the event started at the hoist of the prep flag

-          The bulk of the fleet would start at the prep down

-          The three leading boats would start at the gun

This makes it a 4 minute gap to the first starters and a 1 minute gap to the fleet. Course was once around which brought the whole fleet together at the leeward mark and made it a real tight race to the finish on the last weather leg. Interesting concept; fun to have everyone close together.

Thanks to the RC and their volunteers for another great event. See you at the next one.

Results 

Ps: It's written from a crew's perspective since they do all the work in the boat besides holding the little stick in the back of the boat.

Diaz/Lawrence Win 2012 ECC's LEHYC

The 2012 505 East Coast Championship was sailed at the Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club June 8-10th.

Santa Barbara - Mike Holt

For the second year running the class held a regatta in Santa Barbara. This time 14 boats turned up for some highly competitive and tight racing. Saturday was held in light, even for the East Coast, conditions, 5-8 knots out of the West, with warm and sunny conditions. The very lightest teams occasionally saw the wire at times towards the end of the day but the rest of us became familiar with the insides of our boats.

Saturday was completely dominated by Andy and Howie winning all 4 races with only Brian and Ted ever heading them at any mark. They managed to end the days with 3 2nds and a 3rd along way clear of a tight pack of boats. Don Smith who has now sailed more events this year than n the last 10 years, sailing with Chris Rabb in Howie's B boat notched a 2nd in race 1 and raced competitively all day. Reeve and Holt also had a strong day as did Pat and AJ.

Saturday night was spent exploring Santa Barbara and its delights and come Sunday morning not all heads were as clear as they should be. The weather was slightly different, with the fog lingering longer and in an opposite move to what we are used to with Santa Cruz or Long Beach this seemed to mean more wind. The first race of the day started with the wind moving much more than Saturday catching many out who were doing the West Coast "hit the beach" game. Jeff Nelson, trading down and sailing with me for the weekend picked the way around the course best to win. Then for 2 races it was back to the Andy/Howie show in the gradually building breeze but racing through the fleet was close and the overall standing were starting to get interesting and I am sure everyone was trying to remember their scores and the boats around them's scores too.

So to the last race and the breeze was at its best for the weekend, around 15 knots and a 3 lap course was posted. Dave and Bruce pulled off a Port tack start but it was not enough to get them to the top first. Jeff and I managed that, pushing hardest to the beach to lead from Brian/Ted, Andy/Howie and Dave and Bruce. Three dizzy laps later and we crossed first, of course followed by Andy and Howie, then Dave and Bruce. With the dust settled, Andy and Howie had run out comfortable winners, Jeff and I had pulled up to 2nd, winning the tie breaker with Brian and Ted who took 3rd.

It was great to see so many of the new sailors mixing it up at the front, Holt and Reeve sailed well all weekend to end up 4th and everyone had a good race along the way, Rich and Bob a particularly sting 2nd in race 7, James and Ian racing at the front for a lot of race 5, Bill and Stine racing at a new level in the Waterat. The conditions in Santa Barbara are very different to the other venues we go to and require slightly different skills. They also ran a very good event, with good courses and race management, many thanks to the team at SBYC.


Results