The KeelBoat club End Of Year Regatta was a responding success. With 12 boats on the water, each with three sailors, this was one of our best yet.
The format was a distance race in the morning – for double points – followed by buoy races in the afternoon. For the distance race the RC picked the Bay Bridge course – honor R”4″ race down to G “91” upwind to R “2” and then beat to the finish – with the ability to shorten course between G “91” and R “2”.
A new wrinkle was the downwind start this course called for. The more savvy of the bunch ran down the line on starboard from the pin towards the boat forcing the port tackers either away from the line or over early. They then fell off towards R”4″ at the start.
The building breeze — 10kts gusting 13k to 14kts gusting 17 — created some swell, and the fleet ended up surfing downwind for brief stretches The boats that could keep their jib filled in the wing on wing sail configuration legged out of the main pack that was struggling to break away from each other.
By “91” the leaders were a group and the main pack was another group. The breeze was supposed to clock during the morning, but it actually backed. This turned the reach to R “2” into a wet and wild starboard tack favored beat. Coincidentally, just after the fleet rounded at 11am, the tide that was supposed to change at 8am actually did and began to flood against the fleet trying to beat down the Bay. The RC decided to shorten the course and take R “2” out of the race. They anchored about a mile south of “91” and became the mark to the finish.
Tide and waves became a bigger factor on the way in with the boats that headed in toward Greenbury Pt getting relief from both. Diablo and Seafoam had a battle, with multiple crosses by each boat. The race wasn’t decided until Diablo broached in an 18 knot gust and Seafoam was finally able to slip away for the win. Diablo hung on for second with Eyvinder coming in third.
“After a 10-mile race it was quite a sight to see some of the boats come across the line overlapped,” Ian, our KBC director and RC, said.
Following that long, wet and breezy beat back from “91” the sailors had a much needed lunch break ashore while the RC set the marks for the afternoon buoy races. RC stipulated that the afternoon races would be two laps long, instead of the usual KBC one lap races.
The afternoon proved very shifty and the RC was thankful that they had two boats as the marks seemed like they were in need of constant adjustment. Team Stratus won the first race and Team Chinook took the second. The teams that could play the shifts to stay on the favored tack were the most successful.
Team Diablo with Jamey, Mel and Scott took the win with consistency (2, 3, 3)
Team Seafoam with Dick, Victor and Liam finished second (1, 4, 7)
Team Williwaw with Massy, Carter Ann and Yigit was third with (5, 6, 4)
The regatta was developed to introduce our sailors to the rigors of an all-day race and the different types of conditions that might entail. This year also highlighted another principle of large regattas — being consistently at the top of the fleet is more important than winning each individual race.
Video just after the start:
All the pictures from the races:
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