Home	WestPoint Regatta 7/8/23

View from Kapai

WestPoint Regatta a wild and windy one July 8, 2023

The. WestPoint Regatta is an annual race that takes sailors from just off Treasure Island, around Harding Rock and Alcatraz and then south 20 miles or so to Redwood City. The race is a joint effort of WestPoint Marina, Treasure Island YC and Sequoia YC. WestPoint puts on a heck of a party at the end.

The usual suspects , Windwalker, Luna Sea and Kapai signed up. These three Islanders are becoming known as the usual suspects. Forecasted currents were slack at the start turning to a healthy flood all the way to Redwood City. Forecasted winds were 15 to 25 with gusts to 35 so we prepared for a blustery sleigh ride down the bay.

Kapai crew included my son Bryce, his wife Reanne and new sailor Mike Lynch who is my masters swimming coach. We left a car at WestPoint as I planned to single hand the return trip on Sunday morning. Islanders were in the first start at 11:30 AM and it was blowing pretty good as we prepared for our start. All three boats started close to the gun on starboard with Windwalker across first followed by Luna Sea and Kapai. Once clear of the line we all tacked to port to head to Harding Rock with Windwalker almost on the layline to Harding and Luna Sea footing off to Angel Island to avoid the beginning of the flood. Kapai split the difference. Windwalker rounded Harding first followed by Luna Sea and Kapai. We got a pretty good photo of Windwalker heading on a reach for Redwood City. The strong westerlies held up all afternoon so once you sailed past the first mark it was a broad reach for the next 20 miles or so. Kapai settled into a nice rhythm enjoyed some sandwiches and basically watched Windwalker and Luna Sea disappear down the city front. When we approached the city Windwalker had dropped their Genoa and was motor sailing home. Luna Sea headed for Sequoia YC while Kapai had made a reservation at WestPoint the host of the dinner party. We tied up next to Zeehound a Newport 30 and was delighted to run into Islander 36 royalty Steve Zevanov who was crewing on Zeehound. Steves father Lou pretty much started the I 36 Association and I 36 one design racing on the bay back in 1971. It was great to see Steve.

WestPoint put on a tremendous dinner and party with Jamaican Jerk Chicken, live music and a great turnout. We shared cocktails with Dan Knox on Luna Sea along with his better half Myphi and crew Jeremy. WestPoint set up lot's of tables on the patio overlooking the harbor with a fine view of famous 1924 vintage yacht Hurrica V which was featured in the film. The Great Gatsby. Pretty fancy. We all had fun catching up on the race and swapping lies. My crew left me for home and I had a pleasant overnight. Leaving at 7am I made it back to South Beach Harbor in a little over 3 hours. We will definitely do this Regatta again.

Cheers
Rick Egan Commodore


View from Luna Sea

Wiped out by Windwalker again. Another 26-mile race and another 2-minute loss.

No video of this race. Operator error. I am the video operator. ?? I turned on the GoPro and instead of starting a video I got a single picture on my finger pressing the GoPro button.

Planning for the race the conditions looked to be freshening up quite a bit. Winds predications were from the high teens to the low twenties with gusts twenty-five to thirty. There was supposed to be a building flood throughout the day which would help carry the fleet down to Redwood City.

Our start had 8 boats divided into two classes. One boat was stating with us that had a rating below 100 so they were doing to be tuff and of course there was Windwalker. I told the crew we should be lucky to get third, and I would be happy with a mid-fleet finish. Kapai has been improving and they definitely have a good looking crew! They were someone to worry about.

The start was south of the old Berkely Peir near the north end of TI. The flood was there at the start but it was still early. We still thought it would be a factor so after a good start we tacked and headed toward Point Blunt to take to take advantage of what little current relief we could find. This is the textbook move on a building flood. Of course, it didn't pay off, why would it? Windwalker and the sub 100 boat stayed way south of us and were pointing much higher. Yes, we got some current relief, but we sailed to a less windy area and by the time we rounded the first mark at Harding Rock we were about 10 minutes behind Windwalker and the race was really over at that point. You can't give Windwalker a 10-minute head start and expect to ever overcome that. They are just too good.

However, a good time was had by all after that point. When we got to the mark, we needed to duck two other boats before rounding and falling off toward Alcatraz. The wind was in the low twenties so even though we had the kite ready to go we decided to keep the 135 up and switched to a secondly headsail sheet sheeted to a block on the toerail and just reached off. This proved to be a good decision as the few boats that did try to put up a kite on a tight reach in those conditions had all kinds of problems and it was round up city for them. Our pole stayed up on the headstay with sheet and guy attached to the kite for the next two hours. We never did put it up.

Pretty much for the conditions were the same from rounding Harding Rock all the way to the San Mateo Bridge. Wind right on the beam in the high teens to low twenties and we were zooming. This is the fastest Luna Sea has ever gone without a kite. We were always in the eights (speed though the water) and sometime in the nines. And a few times we hit 9.5. The speed over ground was even higher because of the building flood but it never did get as big as predicted. Although some people say it was gusting to the mid-thirties, we never did see anything like that. The highest gust we saw twenty-seven although looking at the wind speed indicator was not high on the list of priorities.

We were short of crew, but we put our best trimmer on the traveler and for the most part that crew member was really steering the boat. My job on the helm was keeping us on course and every once in a while, luffing up someone who though it was a good idea to try pass us to windward. That was not going to happen. Whenever we got a gust, he eased the traveler to keep us from rounding up. When the gust passed, Jeremie moved it back up again. This seemed to work well as we stayed in control and were going very fast.

So, we did the 26-mile race in three hours. There was a little drama at the finish as we were part of a four-boat finish and all the boats overlapped as all went passed the finish. The one boat on port fouled us, but they seem a bit confused by the port/starboard rule. This could have been a disaster but it wasn't. Anyway, tried not to let that ruin our day.

Toward the end we could see Windwalker and we actually gained a bit on the long reach but they still wiped us out. We did pass the sub 100 boat, so we finished second and corrected out second of the eight boats in our start.

The trip back on Sunday was just Myphi and I. The conditions were just about the same and there was a lot more zooming! The big flood never showed up and the little there wasn't all that much of a problem.

This type of weekend regatta is our favorite and we encourage more people to sign up and give them a shot. This was what I refer to as a "John Melton Regatta". Everyone had a great time.

--Dan
Luna Sea, #420

City astern ...	heading for start.	Luna Sea Windwalker	Strong breeze	Kapai pre-start
Smoking!	Smoking!	Alcatraz astern	Blasting into South Bay ...	Channel mark astern
WestPoint dock ...	1924 Hurrica V	Steve Zevanove & and Rick	Rick & Mike	Kapai - Luna Sea
Bryce & Reanne