Treasure Island King of the Bay Regatta

May 29&30, 2004

Great conditions greeted me on Thurs night at 6PM after an 8 hour drive when Tortuga and I arrived at Treasure Island Sailing Club.  The Vanguard Fleet was doing their version of a TNT which I have to admit had about 9 more knots of wind than ours do (it was blowing maybe 10 at the time).  There were a couple 50's blasting away on their own for fun in the distance. Nigel came in first with a spinnaker pole-face collision which eventually required 8 stitches.  Ouch!  Our gracious host Nick Adamson and the others came in shortly there after and we shared some beers with the very social local Vanguard fleet.

Friday I collected Ben at the airport and we headed straight to TI to start on the boat.  We had a lot to do including new spin sheets, twing lines and other misc work.  The wind was again up and we were looking forward to a great weekend.  Four races on Sat and three on Sun.

Sat morning was light but the wind was scheduled to fill in and even on the short reach to the start we started depowering the rig. This was going to be a wet weekend!  The goals for the day were to work on upwind speed and jibing mechanics.  Basically, we got all the "bad" jibes out of our system on the first day in the first couple races.  We ended our day (race 3) with an especially bad flip where we took the boat through 360 degrees to get her upright again and after finishing the race we discovered we had two holes in our jib and one in the chute so had to end the day.  A great BBQ with plenty of beer helped heal our wounds.  There were a lot of people asking where the rest of the SD contingent was- I made up some appropriately lame excuses for you all....

Sunday was slightly lighter but with renewed energy we went out again to slay the dragons.  We refocused on Sat's goals and actually implemented. We not only kept Tortuga on her feet all day but stayed noticeable closer to the top guys and executed new maneuvers (like crew-led tacks and faster jibes) repeatedly and without much trauma.  There is a BIG difference between 12-14and 16-20 kts of wind but to get back out there in washing machine conditions and actually implement was great.  It was also one of the nicest couple days in SF I think I have ever seen... stunning views and great wind. It is hard to concentrate on racing with stunning views of the skyline of SF and Angel Island constantly in front of you!!!  Big lesson for me for the day was not to spear through the gate boat's wake at the start... it is hard to get the boat up on a plane when 50 gallons of water pours over the bow and lands in the boat!

Our overall standings were not great but looking at at the names above us, I am not unhappy- there are some TOP notch sailors leading us around the course and I don't think anyone except maybe Mike and Jeff got a nap in before we finished!

Thanks to all the TI crowd for a great regatta + hospitality and I would strongly encourage anyone who wants to get some great SF Bay sailing in to contact Nick- it's awesome to sail SF Bay and start the sail in the middle of the bay- I can't wait to go back for more!

Photos! http://www.tisailing.org/505/KOTB04/

Check out #165 to see Aaron attempting to get airborne and #153 for Mike and Jeff having a better gate start but still dealing with wake!

Cheers,
Geoff