Home	Nationals Regatta 10/1/16

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

It was a terrific Nationals Regatta at GGYC with perfect weather. We had 8 Islanders on the starting line, 13 Islanders represented counting race management and crew from other boats and about 50 people in total. A great way to wrap up the racing season. Here are the names:

Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	Prop	P-Allow	Jib	J-Allow	Rating	Crew
6697	Bella Luna	Bob DaPrato	I-2	10	135	0	154	4
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	O-2	0	135	0	144	6
438	Kapai	Rick Egan	E	0	125	0	144	4
6713	Kate	Curt Rodgers	I-2	10	135	0	154	4
82659	Serenity	Eric Mueller	E-3	0	85	6	150	6
580	Some Day	Roy & Melinda Samuelson	I-2	10	135	0	154	5
472	Zenith	Bill & Susan Nork	O-2	0	135	0	144	5
484	Zingara	Jocelyn & Steve Swanson	O-2	0	125	0	144	4
Race Management & Other
396	Ophira	Gary & Pat Salvo						2
11543	Vanishing Animal (Tall)	Rick & Sandy Van Mell						2
28383	Mischief	Charles & Kathryn Hodgkins						2
629	Natural High	Dennis & Judy Bush						2
	Osprey	Jim Lovell - Zingara Crew

Fleet Captain Eric Mueller summed up the race nicely with his view from Serenity:

We had an absolutely fantastic Nationals.

A couple of us showed up on Friday evening and had a nice relaxing chili dinner with a wonderful sunset and good conversation as a backdrop.

Race day started with the race committee trying to figure if we were going to be able to get a temporary mark in where mark 6 off of Fort Mason is supposed to be. While we were waiting to find out I was madly trying to come up with some new courses since all of the existing ones used mark 6. Fortunately the GGYC Rib was able to get going and with a loan of Roger from our crew they got a replacement Mark 6 set. With that crisis averted and after a discussion with the PRO we took a slight delay to allow the wind to build in a little as it was sitting between 5 and 10 knots with a decent flood. Fortunately the delay was short and Serenity and Cassiopeia as the last ones left were unceremoniously kicked off of the dock.

The first race was a nice short windward leeward up to Blackaller then to the newly set mark 6 then home. From our prospective we got an OK start on a little bit off the line but OK with just not quite the speed we needed. The winds were relatively light and all we had was an 85 to work with so there was no way to match speed or acceleration with everybody carrying 125-135's. Upwind our speed was a little slow but there was nothing to do downwind but watch everybody pass us by. We tried a flyer going a straighter line, but caught a bit of the current and lost even more. The crew was great, getting good tacks keeping the sails full. By the time we rounded the leeward mark there was only one boat left behind us leaving us 7th. Rumor has it that Cassiopeia got a bad start and climbed all the way back to 2nd. Great Job!

The second race was shortly after the first with the increasing winds we had been hoping for all day. The course is what we normally call the paperclip course. It goes from the start to Blackaller, to Blossom Rock, to A off of the St. Francis Yacht Club, to our friend 6, and to the finish.

We got a pretty decent start on the second race 1/2 way down the line maybe two seconds off the gun. (great crew work). We were in the mix all the way to the first mark, getting a little behind but not by much as the winds built. Downwind once again we were out-matched by the bigger sails, but thanks to dedicated crew we held in there. The next windward is where my crew shined and we gained two spots where having the small jib allowed us to sneak by the over powered Zingara and Kapai.

We managed to hold off the tailgaters all the way downwind to 6 (see the pic). It was close with everyone trying for that last little bit of speed. On the last windward it was nip and tuck with everyone going great to weather going all the way in to take advantage of the current break. We managed to finish just in front of them after that close tacking duel to the finish.

An absolutely fantastic day of racing!! Just look at how close we were! Positions and finish times are below.

Results			Race	Corrected	Race	Corrected	Points	Place
Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	1	Time	2	Time
472	Zenith	Bill & Susan Nork	1	32:28	1	1:06:45	2	1
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	2	35:00	2	1:07:39	4	2
484	Zingara	Jocelyn & Steve Swanson	3	35:44	6	1:13:07	9	3
6713	Kate	Curt Rodgers	5	37:07	4	1:12:15	9	4
82659	Serenity	Eric Mueller	7	39:18	3	1:11:29	10	5
438	Kapai	Rick Egan	6	37:59	5	1:12:38	11	6
580	Some Day	Roy & Melinda Samuelson	4	36:16	9	DNF	13	7
6697	Bella Luna	Bob DaPrato	8	44:24	7	1:24:45	15	8

You can see that Zingara and Kate both had 9 points and the tie breaker was the third place Zingara got with Kate's best finish being fourth. This put them ahead per the PRO. What a fantastic photo finish. Give all of our skippers a great hand when you see them.

Three Cheers for our race committee and helpers. Gary and Pat Salvo, Rick and Sandy Van Mell, Charles and Kathyrn Hodgkins, Dennis and Judy Bush, and Bob from GGYC. I believe I am missing someone here so please accept my apologies in advance and send out the correction.

Everybody was raving about the sailing and the fun racing. If you didn't make it this year I hope you can next year. It is a lot of fun and a great excuse to come out and play. I know that there were at least two boats that were under repair or they would have made it out.

Fair Winds and fun Islander sailing no matter where or what size.

(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 with the caption and picture number.)

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

Beautiful morning ...	light wind at ...	Golden Gate YC.	Dennis and ...	Leslie set mark ...
not ours, too big!	On the docks ...	skippers gather ...	Bob's shirt shows ...	Bella Luna ...
happy crew!	Serenity ...	looks great ...	crew is ready.	Zenith is ...
getting ready ...	crew's aboard.	Cassiopeia flies ...	battle flag ...	crew's ready.
Here comes ...	Zingara ...	ready to race.	PRO Charles and Eric	RC assignemnts ...
Gary sets up ...	Judy & Anna ...	RC nibbles ...	at ease ...	let's get ready.
Some Day ...	tacks away.	Kate arrives ...	jib set.	Over the seawall ...
it's Kapai.	Cassiopeia under way	Old AC racer ...	dwarfs Islanders.	Happy paddlers.
Some Day	Kate and Kapai	Time to get started.	Starting the sequence.	Jockey for ...

starting position ...

lining up ...

1 minute ...

1st race start.

Across the line ...

all 8 ...	light going ...	some tack away ...	Serenity & Zenith	Zenith
Zingara & Some Day	Some Day	Cassiopeia	Kapai & Kate	Zingara
Bella Luna	Cassi crosses Zingara & Serenity	Some Day & Zenith	On to the bridge ...	Pelican fleet!
Out in the breeze	Sandy & Ruby	At weather mark.	Zenith passes Alcatraz	Zenith is 1st.
2nd Cassiopeia	3rd Zingara	4th Some Day	5th Kate	6th Kapai
7th Serenity	8th Bella Luna	Ready for race 2 sequence.	Nice breeze ...	setting up ...
about 2 minutes	1 minute ...	starting run ...	15 seconds ...	Start.

Clear air ...	nice line ...	7 of 8	Shore tack.	The leaders
Next group	Traffic jam	Very pretty	Crossing back	Ducking
Drone coverage ...	Over ridge line	Getting windy	Kapai gets ...	style points.
Now tailgating.	Pretty!	Some Day ...	has a broken ...	backstay ...
safe at dock ...	twisted halyard too.	Zenith ...	rounds Mark A	Serenity
Kapai	Again!	The run to # 6	Kate on the run.	Pelicans again!
1st is Zenith	Cassiopeia is 2nd	3rd Serenity	4th Kapai	5th Zingara
6th Kate	7th Bella Luna	Back to the dock ...	Cassiopeia cheers.	Some Day crew recovers
All lined up.	Bella Luna too.	Gathering at GGYC ...	around the ...	room ...
chow line ...	goodies for ...	dogs & chili!	Good eats ...	smiles too.
Serious talk ...	and relaxing ...	happy winners ...	all around.	Crowd listens to ...
Eric announce ...	winners Zenith	2nd Cassiopeia	3rd Zingara	It's the J 70 ...
Worlds returning.	Saturday dinner group.

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