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Site Rank - Old Salt |
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:00 am Posts: 383 Location: Long Beach, CA
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Okay Jacques you asked for it:
San Diego Classic
With 22 16As and 15 Tigers there were some great races to look forward to. Aside from those entrants I think there were about 12 others. That is about 50 boats showing up. Considering the scant number names called for thanks, and many called more than once for double duty, I think this regatta went okay. It would be nice to have the benefit of separate start and finish lines but there were just not enough volunteers to accomplish that. The catch-22 about this is that there were sailors on the course that were capable of picking up the slack, but then the registration numbers would be down that finance the regatta.
Conditions looked promising as we were driving over the Coronado Bridge. There was a slight haze or fog on the water and the sun was shining. This usually means that there will be warming inland allowing a strong breeze to kick in from the ocean. As we were setting up on Saturday a very light breeze was blowing from the wrong direction. It picked up a bit and was heading toward the prevailing wind as we made our way out to the course. We waited around a while for the wind to settle enough for the committee to set marks. When we got started the conditions were not bad for a three lap race until the third time to the weather mark. There was a low thick fog bank churning in like the dust off a desert freight train. Eileen asked whether I wanted to tack to avoid the bank allowing us to see for a while longer. I decided to sail into the fog first as everyone will eventually. I shared with her the plan to tack when we saw the shore. She was looking diligently, then finally said she saw it. I looked and did not believe her and told her that I could not. She insisted that she did and I waited. Finally the third time she said it I believed her and tacked. By the time we got to the weather mark it was far leeward of us. We could have cut much of the course distance if I was not over-standing every mark as if I needed extra altitude for a parachute to open. That pretty much set the tempo of our racing weekend.
Coming down to the finish was a matter “feelingâ€
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