Nationals Regatta GGYC 10/14/17

Home	Nationals Regatta at GGYC 10/13/18

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Ophira, Natural High, Serenity and Bella Luna were snug in slips at Golden Gate Yacht Club on a beautiful Saturday morning. Their I-36 burgees fluttered in about 8 knots of breeze under warm blue sky with just a touch of fog curled around the tops of the toweres of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Zenith, Cassiopeia and Zingara stopped dockside at GGYC to pick up crew about 1030, Some Day arrived in the starting area just after 1100, and the Race Committee opten for a 15 minute postponement to wait for Kapai and Highlighter who were beating westward against a gentle flood tide to get to the starting line.

By the start of the first race winds were up to 10 knots and building as PRO Charles Hodgkins picked the triangular Course 7 for the 1st race. This sent the fleet west to Blackaller Buoy near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, then northeast to Harding Rock buoy, on southest to YRA Mark 6 off Fort Mason, and then back west to finish in front of GGYC for a total of 5.2 miles.

Highlighter pulled off essentially a port tack start by being right at the rocks in front of GGYC on starboard tack at the gun and was able to tack to port and clear the fleet. The seven Islanders looked great as the wind continued to increase and the fleet short-tacked along the shore to minimize the effect of the flood current. By the time the fleet had rounded Harding and Mark 6, Charles reported that the winds were up to 23 with gusts to 28 mph on the GGYC anemometer.

The wind held steady for the second race using Course 3, a 5.7 mile double windward leeward with the boats clearly visible as they rounded the starting mark off GGYC as the first downwind mark, and again as they ran east to Mark 6 before returning to finish at GGYC.

Highlighter won both races, with Zenith taking 2nd twice, and Cassiopeia in 3rd twice.

All hands came ashore to celebrate and we had a total of 10 Islanders along the GGYC docks and 40+ people gathered at the club. Commodore DaPrato called the group to orderr, thanks Charles for being a great PRO, and then Eric Mueller awarded the prizes. GGYC manager Bob Mulhern and his crew kept beverages flowing at the bar and a wonderful buffet of Caesar salad, chili with the 'fixins, big juicy burgers and hot, crisp french fries. It was a perfect Nationals Regatta.

All in all, we had 13 Islanders prepresented. Below are the Participants list, the results and pictures.

Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	Prop	P-Allow	Jib	J-Allow	Tall?	Rating	Crew
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	O	0	135	0	0	144	5
28312	Highlighter	Bill Hackel	O	0	135	0	0	144	6
438	Kapai	Rick Egan	E	0	125	0	0	144	4
82659	Serenity	Eric Mueller	E	0	135	0	0	144	5
580	Some Day	Roy Samuelson	I	10	135	0	0	154	5
472	Zenith	Bill & Susan Nork	O	0	135	0	0	144	4
484	Zingara	Jocelyn & Steve Swanson	O	0	125	0	0	144	4
Race Management & Other
	Bella Luna	Bob DaPrato & Maria Santiago
	Mischief	Charles & Kathryn Hodgkins
	Natural High	Dennis & Judy Bush
	Ophira	Gary & Pat Salvo
	Vanishing Animal (Tall)	Rick & Sandy Van Mell
	Geja	Andrew Vik (Crew - Serenity)

Results

Results			Race 1	Corrected	Race 2	Corrected	Total	Place
Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	Points	Time	Points	Time	Points
28312	Highlighter	Bill Hackel	1	0:47:18	1	0:52:03	2	1
472	Zenith	Bill & Susan Nork	2	0:48:22	2	0:52:44	4	2
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	3	0:50:32	3	0:53:16	6	3
82659	Serenity	Eric Mueller	5	0:52:40	4	0:54:30	9	4
438	Kapai	Rick Egan	4	0:52:31	6	0:58:22	10	5
580	Some Day	Roy Samuelson	6	0:52:45	5	0:55:56	11	6
484	Zingara	Jocelyn & Steve Swanson	7	0:54:12	7	1:00:36	14	7

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

If you'd like an original of one of the pictures (these are 800 x 600, while originals are more like 1.5 MB), email Rick Van Mell with the caption and picture number.

Morning bright is ...	*Bella Luna*	Eric's working on ...	Serenity.	Natural High andOphira
Zenith arrives	Nice rafted ...	*Zenith*	*Bella Luna*	*Natural High*
*Ophira*	Which way wind??!!	Foggy tower tops	Flying burgees ...	Cassiopeia arrives.
Here comes ...	*Zingara*	Cassiopeia warms up	Highlighter tests the line	Serenity does too
getting crowded	*Highlighter*	1st Race - Course 7	Kapai runs line	Lining up ...
Highlighter aims for ...	shore end.	Nice lead	Fleet follows	Zingara looks good

Tacking out	Zenith, Serenity split	Kapai charging	*Zingara & Cassiopeia*	*Zenith & Kapai*
Splitting for the bridge	*Zingara*	Cross traffic	Finish approach ...	1st Highlighter
2nd Zenith	Pelican fleet!	3rd Cassiopeia	Who wins the split???	*4th Kapai* at the pin**
5th Serenity	6th Some Day	7th Zingara	Let's see ...	How much time?
What course?	2nd Race - Course 3	*Pat watches Kapai* ...**	make early tack ...	one minute to go.

*Highlighter, Cassiopeia*	Stretching out	Kapai returns	*Serenity, Zenith*	*Kapai, Zingara*
South Tower split	Three-way split	Breeze is up	Picture perfect	Fog coming in
Stretching out	Tack to cover	Hezding for Blackaller	Old America's Cupper	Tight rounding ...
at Mark X	Heading west	Highlighter leads	Cassiopeia chases	Highlighter, Zenith ...
passing X ...	Rounded Mark 6 ...	tight cover ...	*1st Highlighter* ...**	Victorious crew
*2nd Zenith* ...**	Current & original owners!	*3rd Cassiopeia* ...**	stalwart crew	*4th Serenity* ...**
smiling crew.	*5th Some Day* ...**	happy crew.	*6th Kapai* ...**	grinning crew
*7th Zingara* ...**	loyal crew.	Commodore DaPrato ...	kicking things off.	3rd is Kit Wiegman Cassiopeia
2nd is Bill NorkZenith	1st is Bill Hackel<>BR>:Highlighter	Eric holds Crew Award	Line forms for ...	good eats ...
Thanks Bob!	RC table ...	Highlighter gang	Serenity crew	Zingara table
Some Day, Zenith table	Cassiopeia crew	5 Islanders ...	5 more ... 10 on site!	Plastic blue whale with...
Judy & Pat!

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