Spring Series Results at end of post.

Race Night Report

We had a good turnout for our final outing of the KSC Spring Series, with 13 racers!  In fact, all available Albacores were out on the water, along with a Tasar, a Laser, and 2(!) Hobie 16 catamarans, despite the lighter conditions.

A delay getting people on the water (and finding boats…) meant that race 1 was sailed by 3 double-handers and a Laser.  To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Steve and Carla blasted around the course in the Tasar, leaving a couple of Albacores to fight with a Laser for the remaining places.  Jean skippering her very first race (she just got her blue tag!) and Frank were able to win second, followed by Ray and Chunshu.  Tuan (our first rookie this season) was awarded an on-course-finish in a Laser.

The second race saw the racers joined by Tony/Annie in a Hobie 16 catamaran at the start.  A second, very overloaded,  H16 started later in the race (Norm, Tom N, Jason, and rookie Devin).  Carla/Steve took the win (again) followed by Jean/Frank (again).  This time Tuan took 3rd, with Ray/Chunshu following and Annie/Tony scoring the first cat finish of the season.  The 4-men-on-a-cat was awarded an OCF to allow the 3rd race to get underway.

And what a nuisance that 4-man cat made itself that 3rd race :).  Just before the gun, the overloaded cat decided on an aggressive start at the boat end, enforced it’s rights, and pushed the Tasar across the start line early.  Ha ha, take *that* Steve.  The move was just a couple of seconds too early though, the H16 had to bear off and and the Tasar was able to duck behind the cat, do a dip start, and led the whole way though the race.  Still, it was fun while it lasted.

After rounding windward in 3rd place (behind the Tasar and H16), Jean and Frank made use of the Albacores superior direct light-downwind performance on a wind shift on the second leg, and passed the overloaded cat, who had to head up to maintain any speed.  The overloaded boat made up distance on the second reaching leg (more of a beam reach than a broad reach) and were able to establish overlap just outside the zone and round the leeward mark on the inside.  Remember how I said she made herself a nuisance?  Jean and Frank tacked quickly to get out of the cat’s dirty air, and the cat made a big tactical mistake… she tried to tack to stay in front of the Albacore, and just got stuck in irons, and was passed by Frank/Jean as well as Chunshu/Ray (lesson learned — when sailing a cat, don’t get into a tacking duel).  At the windward mark the overloaded cat was passed AGAIN, this time by Tony/Annie’s H16, who came from behind.  End results, Carla/Steve 1st, Frank/Jean 2nd, Chunshu/Ray 3rd, Annie/Tony 4th, Jason/Norm/Tom/Devin OCF 5th.

Apres-sail was a blast, as always, and a huge shout-out to Ray for bringing the beer/burgers!  Thanks again goes out to our RC (Reese and Sydney) without whom the race would not have been possible.

Spring Series Results

We got in 8 official races over 3 nights, in addition to the 2 races run on the practice night when the water was still too high to keep the boats at the beach.  This means that we have 2 dropped races (1 drop per 4 races) to take into account for series results.

Going into the night Jason had placed first in the prior 5 races, but with two drops, it was anyone’s game if Jason dropped the ball and placed poorly (which he did).  Tony (with a few 1st places), Carla, and Norm (2nd and 3rd place finishes) were all in contention.  Basically, if Jason scored poorly, and either of them got a few firsts, then it would all come down to “how poorly did Jason score”.

And, as we know, Jason scored poorly in the 4-man-cat, while Carla won all 3 races on the final night…

So who won the series?  (drum roll please…) The net result, including dropped races is a TIE at between Jason and Carla at 10 points each!  We now have to go to the score excluding drops for the official series winner, and it looks like Jason wins with 22 points vs Carla’s 40.  Congrats Jason, bragging rights are yours for a few weeks.

We had two rookies come out this series, Tuan and Devin.  Between the two, Tuan takes the “Best Rookie Award” and bragging rights, at least for the next five weeks. (Note: a previous revision of this post said that Devin had won, because I didn’t realize Tuan was a rookie — the official scoring chart, below, will also be updated)

Complete Spring Series Results

Summer Series 1 Starts June 29

Come on out next week when we’ll all start with 0 points for Summer Series 1 (June 29-July 27).  I especially invite our Learn-to-Sail students to come on out and exercise those shiny new blue tags.  We have a “best rookie” award, and great food/company afterwards.  Even if you don’t want to race by yourself, let your humble* sailing director (Jason) know (sailing@kanatasailingclub.com) and we’ll make sure we get a skipper or crew for you.  “Nobody left ashore” policy is still in effect; if you want to sail, we’ll get you on the water regardless of circumstances.

*well, he may not be so humble for the next few weeks — if you want to take him down a few pegs, come on out and beat him around the course!