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.

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

Weather mark, first leg, first race.

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

Finish line, first race.

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

Start of second race.

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

Second race, first weather mark.

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

Second race, second weather mark.

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

Second race, finish line.

Pilot	Tenacious & Blue Streak	Mischief, Windwalker Tom Cat

Crew Pictures!

Nationals T Shirt	Pegasus	Freedom Won	Four Cs	Zenith
Zoop	Blue Streak	Pacific High	Nimbus	Tom Cat
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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