October 4-5, 2003
I-36 Nationals
San Francisco Yacht Club


Sixteen Islanders hit the starting line for the first "Islander Nationals" in many, many years. Perfect 14 knots westerly winds blew through the Golden Gate across the race course set just to the east of Southampton Shoals. Though cloudy (Ok, foggy) at first, the sun broke through during the first race and made for some great pictures with the stratus still hanging over the Berkeley hills.

Though billed as "The Nationals", only two fleet member from out of town arrived to participate. Mark Wyatt, Axolotyl, came in from San Diego and sailed with Don Schumacher on Blue Streak. Everyone was delighted Mark had come, and we hope many more will plan to come in future years.

A fair starting line invited the fleet to stretch out along the line and avoid bunching at the Race Committee end, though there were the usual hails to windward yachts, and Zoop and Windwalker were both pushed over the line early in the second race. Sailing a double windward leeward course with an offset mark at the windward end and a gate at the leeward end helped minimize mark congestion. Currents were light, but a bit contrary, causing lots of boat to overstand the windward mark on several legs - the current ran from east to west. Racing was close and boat speed was at least as important as tactics - there did not appear to be a specifically favored side of the course. Some boats passed through the finish line - contrary to the sailing instructions, but the Race Committee did not disqualify them, and protests lodged against them were disallowed. Why remained a bit of a mystery! Tom Cat withdrew, but others recorded as passing through the finish did not. As word spread, a recall vote of the Protest Committee was threatened. On Sunday morning it was decided to sail only one more race and assumed that those who had passed throught the finish line would do the honorable thing.

And speaking of rules, young Patrick Tara was aboard previewing the pictures Saturday evening and when asked about "Zoop's loop" (see picture in Second Race, second weather mark), here was his reply. "Well, we just touched the weather mark and nobody saw us, but if you're playing by the rules you have to do a 360, so we did." Thanks Paul & Mary!

But it was good fun and everyone returned to the docks Saturday night for a terrific buffet and BBQ dinner on the San Francisco Yacht Club porch with the fleet rafted up right in front. Laughter and stories rippled up and down the tables as glasses clinked. Some watched baseball playoffs while others walked the docks to look at the competitors' rigging. Zenith even got measured! But with the early darkness of fall, the docks were quiet by 8 pm as serious crews bunked down to recharge their stamina for Sunday's racing.

I-36 Nationals T-Shirts were a real highlight of the weekend. A very special thanks to Sean Svendsen of Svendsen's Boat Works who provided them, and added, "We hustled, and I mean hustled, to put together artwork, order the T-shirts from Harken and get them silkscreened in time. We dropped off the completed shirts the day prior to the regatta, and Jim Robinson handed them out (6 per boat) at the skippers' meeting." They were proudly worn on the race course and at the party. We're sure you'll be seeing them at races and cruise events for years to come (there is even a picture of one down in the crew section at the bottom of the page). This is one more example of the fine service Svendsen's has provided to the Islander fleet, including the special Islander Fleet Night way back at the Encinal cruise, and, of course, the great yard work including complete paint and bottom jobs - like the glistening new Zenith! Thanks Svendsen's!

Your reporter was unable to cover the Sunday race, but the results are below, and, hey, we've got 87 pictures of the first two races and crew pictures of 13 of the competitors. Enjoy them all below.

(A number of people asked about how to get copies of pictures. Just enlarge the thumbnail on your browser, then right-click on the picture and select "Save Image As ...", then pick a directory and change the name of the image if you like and save it to your hard drive. Then you can use any photo program to crop or adjust and print to your liking. If you have any questions give me an email. Rick Van Mell vanmells@ix.netcom.com

Given the various issues about finishers, these results are the best your author could approximate on Sunday evening 10/5 and may be corrected in coming days.

FirstName LastName Boat Name Sail . Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total Place
                 
James Robinson Pilot 6747 5 1 2 8 1
Richard Shoenhair Windwalker 57307 1 7 3 11 2
Don Schumacher Blue Streak 6720 2 2 7 11 3
Kris Youngberg Tenacious 6741 3 3 8 14 4
Charles Hodgkins Mischief 28383 4 6 5 15 5
Art Fowler Zenith 472 9 5 6 20 6
Paul Tara Zoop 361 6 11 4 21 7
Barry Stompe TomCat 6776 20 4 1 25 8
Ted Elliott Razor 6765 8 8 11 27 9
Julian Cohen Four C's 87173 7 12 10 29 10
Joseph Krensavage Mustang 276 10 13 9 32 11
Mike Dickson Nimbus 568 12 10 14 36 12
Harry Farrell Pacific High 574 13 14 12 39 13
Frank Burkhart Island Girl 57449 11 9 20 40 14
John Melton Freedom Won 447 14 15 13 42 15
Travis Huff Love It 513 16 16 20 52 16
Chris Mellor Spindrift 6711 15 20 20 55 17
Robert J. Aston Pegasus 464 20 20 20 60 18

First race start and first leg.

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MVC-848S MVC-849S Tenacious &
Razor
MVC-851S MVC-852S MVC-853S
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MVC-854S MVC-855S MVC-856S MVC-857S MVC-858S MVC-859S
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MVC-860S Mischief &
Island Girl
MVC-862S MVC-863S Zoop &
Tom Cat
Razor &
Pilot

Weather mark, first leg, first race.

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MVC-866S MVC-867S Tom Cat &
Razor
Tom Cat &
Razor
Blue Streak Zoop
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Pilot MVC-873S Pacific High Island Girl Zenith Freedom Won
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Love It MVC-879S MVC-880S MVC-881S Blue Streak MVC-883S
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Four Cs MVC-885S MVC-886S Pacific High &
Nimbus
Zenith MVC-889S

Finish line, first race.

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Tom Cat &
Windwalker
Blue Streak MVC-892S Zenith Mustang Island Girl &
Nimbus

Start of second race.

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Love It MVC-897S MVC-898S MVC-899S MVC-900S MVC-901S
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Zenith Tom Cat MVC-904S Pilot Pilot MVC-907S

Second race, first weather mark.

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Blue Streak MVC-909S MVC-910S MVC-911S MVC-912S Zenith
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Windwalker, I.G.
& Tenacious
Tom Cat Island Girl &
Mustang
4 Cs, Pac High
& Nimbus
mvc-x03S Love It

Second race, second weather mark.

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mvc-x05S Pilot Pilot Zenith Blue Streak Windwalker
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Zoop's loop! Nimbus Four Cs &
Zoop
Pacific High Love It Love It

Second race, finish line.

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Pilot Tenacious &
Blue Streak
Mischief, Windwalker
Tom Cat


Crew Pictures!

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Nationals T Shirt Pegasus Freedom Won Four Cs Zenith
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Zoop Blue Streak Pacific High Nimbus Tom Cat
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Mischief Island Girl Tenacious Razor

(Apologies to Mustang who posed but my disk was full, and to those I didn't get to photo.)




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