January 15-16, 2005
Corrinthian YC Mid-Winter Series

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

Congratulations to Fred Hodgson, Mike Melin and the crew of Silver Cloud for their fabulous performance this weekend as the top Islander 36 in the CYC Midwinters Regatta. Thanks also to Frank and Susie Mayo of Amante, and Kit Wiegman of Cassiopeia for Racing With Us!

Saturday, January 15th:

Four Islander 36s, Silver Cloud, Amante, Cassiopeia and Mustang raced under partly sunny skies, cool air temperature, wind from the North at 15-20 knots and a developing flood current. Silver Cloud, Amante and Mustang were in Class G with 5 other boats racing non-spinnaker. Cassiopeia raced spinnaker in Class H.

The race committee gave us (class G) course #16; start, Little Harding, Fort Mason, Elephant Rock in Belvedere Cove, Finish, making for a race across the Bay and back. The start line ran East – West in Belvedere Cove which created a downwind start. Silver Cloud and Mustang ran the line on a beam reach and crossed the pin end of the line on a broad reach headed for Little Harding.

After passing through the lee of the Belvedere Peninsula, the breeze freshened and our SOG increased to 7-8 knots. Silver Cloud was the first Islander to round Little Harding. The next leg was a judgement call on how much affect the flood current would have as we crossed the slot. Silver Cloud conservatively sailed higher on the first half of this leg and then gibed about half-way across the slot, sailing a broad reach for the Fort Mason buoy. That turned out to be a very good decision. About half-way across the slot, Since Silver Cloud was about 10 boat lengths ahead, Mustang tried to sail lower to converge at Fort Mason, but that didn’t pan out and Silver Cloud rounded Fort Mason about one minute ahead.

The next leg was a long, starboard tack beat toward Sausalito, taking advantage of the flood current set toward Belvedere Cove. Apparent wind varied between 15-20 knots on this leg, Mustang’s SOG averaged about 6 knots. We tried to catch Silver Cloud, tweeking everything, but we just couldn’t catch her, and when she tacked toward Belvedere Cove, we tacked also and sailed close hauled almost all the way to Point Knox where we tacked over to starboard, heading directly at the tip of the Belvedere Peninsula.

At the mouth of Racoon Strait, we tacked to port and sailed close hauled, up the strait with the flood, and heading up in some pretty strong puffs that lifted us toward the Elephant Rock mark. By the time we rounded Elephant Rock, Silver Cloud finished ahead by 6 minutes 22 seconds. It was a good race and it felt great to be out on the Bay racing again after a three month hiatus.


Sunday, January 16th:

What a magnificently beautiful day! Blue skies, bright sunshine, warmer air temps and a good breeze in the teens from the North were the venue for this race. We were given course #4; Start, Blackaller, Blossom Rock, Elephant Rock, Finish, making for a race in a giant loop around the central bay.

This was another downwind start with a receding ebb current on the line and Silver Cloud and Mustang were OCS with less than one minute to our starting gun, and with the India rule in effect, we had to round the pin end to re-start late, giving Amante an advantage. After the start, Silver Cloud and Mustang sailed toward the South Tower, anticipating an early flood at Blackaller. Amante sailed a little lower. We converged at Blackaller, Silver Could ahead by about 1 minute, Mustang and Amante rounding in that order.

Silver Cloud and Amante sailed along the Cityfront, about a ½ mile offshore, while Mustang hugged the Cityfront hoping to ride a developing flood to Blossom Rock. Silver Cloud, Mustang and Amante rounded Blossom Rock in that order.

Silver Cloud didn’t immediately tack after rounding, and although we thought the flood would set them too far East, they tacked on a lay line that took them along the Southwest shore of Angel Island, where we expected the wind to subside in the lee of the island since the wind was coming from the North. But there was an inexplicable fresh breeze on that side of the island, and the effect of the flood wasn’t as strong as we expected, so Silver Cloud’s lead widened on us greatly to a finish 7 minutes 24 seconds ahead.

Full results and a picture of our happy crew are below.

Regards,

Joseph Krensavage
Mustang
Islander 36 Race Chair


Saturday Race - January 15, 2005
PlaceNameSail NoTypeSkipperBehind
1Silver Cloud28579Islander 36Fred/Mike Hodgson/Melin0:00:00
2Smogen III18180CustomJulle LeVicki0:04:11
3Mustang276Islander 36Joseph Krensavage0:06:22
4Shearwater22446C+C 36-1Jennifer Lacy0:09:50
5Windhover47126Pearson 10 mJohn Dodge0:10:48
6Amante6791Islander 36Frank Mayo0:11:21
7Aria5449Grand SoleilDan Carrico0:11:48
8Athena1244Catalina 36 MkIIKelvin/Tony Phillips/Miller0:13:21
      
      


Sunday Race - January 16, 2005

PlaceNameSail NoTypeSkipperBehind
1Smogen III18180CustomJulle LeVicki0:00:00
2Silver Cloud28579Islander 36Fred/Mike Hodgson/Melin0:02:21
3Shearwater22446C+C 36-1Jennifer Lacy0:09:38
4Mustang276Islander 36Joseph Krensavage0:09:45
5Kira28999Cal 33-2Jim Erskine0:10:48
6Windhover47126Pearson 10 mJohn Dodge0:10:49
7Aria5449Grand SoleilDan Carrico0:13:31
8Amante6791Islander 36Frank Mayo0:14:43
9Athena1244Catalina 36 MkIIKelvin/Tony Phillips/Miller0:19:02

Picture is compliments of Joseph Krensavage. Click on image to enlarge, click "Back" to return.


Joseph & his Mustang crew celebrate!
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