Home	Nationals Regatta at GGYC 10/5/24

Commodore Egan summed it all up: The turnout for the Nationals Regatta put a smile on the Commodores face! Despite a long wind postponement everyone enjoyed a pre-race lunch and the delightful camaraderie at Golden Gate Yacht Club. Congratulations to the captains and crew of Cassiopeia, Windwalker and Luna Sea who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Also a big shout out to organizers Bob DaPrato who secured our event at GGYC, and Rick Van Mell for organizing things and leading the Race Committee to put together a nice race given the light wind conditions. Mark your calendars for our Awards lunch and celebration coming up on Saturday November 16 at Coyote Point YC.

We had 7 boats on the starting line and a total of 12 I-36s represented by 35 people. Here's the list.

Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	Prop	P-Allow	Jib	J-Allow	Tall?	Rating	Crew	Party
6697	Bella Luna	Bob DaPrato	I	10	135	0	0	154	3	5
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	O	0	135	0	0	144	6	6
438	Kapai	Rick Egan + Mike Doran	E	0	125	0	0	144	5	5
420	Luna Sea	Dan Knox	E	0	135	0	0	144	6	6
234	Renaissance of Tahoe Vista	Stephen Douglass	O	0	135	0	0	144
57307	Windwalker	Rich & Tom Schoenhair	O	0	135	0	0	144	4	6
Race Management & Other
11543	Vanishing Animal (Tall)	Rick & Sandy Van Mell	I	15	135	0	-6	153		2
6697	Bella Luna	Maria Santiago	I	10	135	0	0	154		1
	White Horses	Rob & Ruby (crew Bella)								2
	Tacoma Blue	Rich & Takae Waters								2
	ex-Cali	Kerry Scot (crew Renai.)
	Happy Sisyphus	Mike Doran (crew Kapai)
	Barnacle	Barney Blickner (crew Cassi)

When there was no wind at the scheduled 1130 Warning Gun, 2 sounds were made and the Postponement flag was flown. the intent ws to see if wind would arrive arround noon, to continue with the original schedule, or if not, go on to Plan B. When there was not wind at 1200, as is a few other years, we asked Bob Mulhern and his wonderful GGYC crew to fire up the kitchen and serve up our Nibbles. In a short 50 minutes the fresh Ceasar Salad, Hot Dogs and trimmings, Chili and Curly French Fries wound up spread on the buffet table at 1250 in the Regatta Room for all to enjoy.

As we finished the Nibbles, Commodore Egan thanked Bob Mulhern and his GGYC crew for yet another great fesat; Bob DaPrato for his generous contribution of a bottle of Chardonnay on each table, and Rick & Sandy for a generous donation to help subsidize the cost per person. With that, he declared we should go racing as the wind had finally made an appearance. It was wonderful to see 7 sets of Islander crews getting aboard their boats and heading out to the starting line.

It turned out to be such a perfect day tht you could have had your grandmother comfortably aboard for crew. The wind settled in at about 8 knots and didn't push much above 12 for the whole afternoon. That made for gentle but steady racing around Course #4: beat to Blackaller Buoy near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, then downwind to the X Buoy at GGYC (also the starting line), then back up to Blackaller, run down to 6 Buoy off Ft. Mason, then beat back to the finish at GGYC for a 5.7 mile course.

We hauled down the postponement flag at 1400, then started the sequence at 1402 with a 1406 start. Maria Santiago was on the horn for the signals and took great delight at each blast. By the time we started, the morning's flood current had turned to an ebb and Rick noted that to the fleet. On the final approach to the starting line Luna Sea and Windwalker had been carried just on the course side of the line and were recalled with a horn (Maria was happy) and hoisting the X flag. An "all clear" and they were off in hot pursuit of the fleet.

Renaisance of Tahoe Vista, Cassiopeia and Full Circle led the fleet off the starting line. The wind was stronger out in the Bay and by the time the fleet had rounded Blackaller they had stretched out quite a bit. The rounding times at X mark were:

	Mark X
Boat Name	Time
Cassiopeia	14:42:44
Renaissance of Tahoe Vista	14:47:38
Windwalker	14:49:35
Luna Sea	14:51:57
Kapai	14:52:50

That's a 5 minute lead for Cassiopeia and about 2 minutes each between the next boats. Full Circle called to say that she was withdrawing and coming back to GGYC.

With the likelyhood of the leaders stretching out their leads even more on the 2 round, and realizing that by passing GGYC going to Ft. Mason, they would then have to come back To GGYC before heading for home. With the continuing light wind the Race Committe hoisted the "S" flag with one horn (Maria was happy) and shortened the course to finish on the downwind leg at GGYC. Per the Sailing Instructions, this was announced several times on Channel 71.

As the boats rounded Blackaller and headed downwind for the last time, the sequence was still the same with Cassiopeia finshing first. Renaissance apparently hadn't heard the shorten course signal and sailed outside Mark X. Thus Windwalker finished 2nd followed by Luna Sea and Kapai. Renaissance had figured out their situation and beat back and round X correctly to finish next. Bella Luna rounded out the fleet. Here are the finish times.

Results			Race 1	Corrected	Race 2	Corrected	Total	Place
Sail #	Boat Name	Skipper	Points	Time	Points	Time	Points
6763	Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman	1	1:7:52				1
57307	Windwalker	Rich & Tom Schoenhair	2	1:12:40				2
420	Luna Sea	Dan Knox	3	1:18:26				3
438	Kapai	Rick Egan + Mike Doran	4	1:20:27				4
234	Renaissance of Tahoe Vista	Stephen Douglass	5	1:23:23				5
6697	Bella Luna	Bob DaPrato	6	1:24:2				6
6731	Full Circle	Mark Irwin	WDR	WDR				7

And thanks to Dan Knox, here is a link to the entire race aboard Luna Sea: Luna Sea's Race.

Enjoy the pictures and mark your calendars for Saturday, November 16th at Coyoe Point Yacht Club for our FAll Meeting and Winners Celebration Lunch.

Flags hang ...	Bridge is calm ...	Alcatraz too.	But I-36 fleet is gathered	Windwalker outside
Luna Sea	Cassiopeia	Tacoma Blue	Kapai with Renaissance astern	Full Circle
The RC: Maria, Rich, Sandy & Ruby.	San Francisco skyline	Bella Luna arrives.	Crews relax ...	Waiting for wind.
Grab a cool one ...	Renaissance crew	Rick, Maria	Bob and crew.	Meanwhile down below ...
Cassi crew relaxes ...	Kapai crew too.	Kathy & Rick	Cindy & Mark	Barnacle crew
Resting crew!	Meanwhile, on Windwalker ...	crew aloft to ...	work on spreaders.	Pelican flyby towards ...
Golden Gate Bridge (still no wind)	At 1250 it's Nibbles Time ...	Eager eaters ...	fill the room.	Cassi & Full Circle crews
Kapai crew + Sandy	Dessert cookies.	Commodore Egan says, "Let's go race!"	Rick studies courses.	Crews board 7 Islanders
Luna Sea leads the way ...	Renaissance heads out ...	then Cassiopeia ...	Full Circle & Bella Luna ...	and Kapai.
Setting sail.	Luna Sea gets ...	pelican assist.	Full circle, Kapai, Cassiopeia	Kapai's bird spotter.
Checking wind ...	running away, and ...	starting to turn ...	too early? ...	run for the start.
Renaissance, Cassiopeia and Full Circle take the start.	Luna Sea & Windwalker over early ...	Cleared and started.	Leaders in good wind.	Picture taking time.
Bella Luna rounds X.	Cassiopeia has ...	overhead drone.	Cassiopeia wins!	Windwalker finishes.
Renaissance outside mark	Luna Sea next.	Then Kapai.	Renaissance returns ...	and finishes.
Gret Schooner!	Bella Luna finishes.	GGYC Saturday afternoon.	Night view.	Sunday morning sun ...
and smiles from Bob, Takae & Rich.