SCYC Spring Dinghy

Santa Cruz CA, April 10-11, 2004

Team Tortuga Fever's first event in Santa Cruz was met with mixed results.

Friday night's arrival in SC at 8PM was met with gray, cold and wet conditions. I found the club and boat park fairly easily, got the boat somewhat unpacked and went in search of beer. This I found with my sudden but gracious host Aaron Ross and I joined him, Ali Meller, and eventually Bill McKinny for a few cold ones to unwind from the long trip.

Saturday started as Friday had left... cold, wet and gray. But with more 505's than I had ever seen in any one place! The 20-30 boats expected turned into 31 eventually. Everyone was happy to see the SD fleet (three of us) there and we got a lot of positive comments from people. The northwest fleet out-did us with 6 boats though and from as far as Vancouver.

The other thing I was not used to was a full-on syndicate there with three boats entered, multiple chase/coach boats, team van, etc; the whole enchilada, as they say. Being a bit intimidated, I decided it would be really nice to beat one of their boats at some point during the regatta.

Bill and I got the boat put together and after a debate on whether to use the famous mast-eating hoist or get in a long line for the launch ramp, we opted for the hoist. The first challenge was making it out of the very narrow channel with a whole passel of clueless fishermen coming in from Salmon fishing. Surviving that, we headed out in ~4-6 kts for the race course. Since it was not my boat, it was decided our starts would be very non-aggressive and the goal for the day was not to get too involved with the top-guys (of which there were quite a few) but get a feel for the course and keep the riff-raff behind us. Everyone said the right was almost always favored, so tactically we opted for that having no better ideas of our own. A conservative start left us mid line and back a bit and when we got the chance, we went to the right corner. It seemed to pay off a bit as while being slow upwind we still managed to keep some of the boats behind us. The run saw us pick-off about 6 boats while tank-running deeper than most on the right side of the course. We managed to let most of them back in while going to weather but picked them and a couple more off again on the run. I saw a trend developing!!! With a short beat to weather for the finish we held on to our position.

The next race saw one of my poorest starts of all time, being on port on the left side of the line and late trying to pick my way through what seemed like 80 boats all of a sudden!!! This time the right side totally paid off and despite an appalling start we rounded with at least 10 boats behind us. We got a couple more on the run and then lost about 1/2 of them stuck in a hole in dying breeze on the beat to the finish.

Last race, we started better on port on the right side and banged the corner (but again out of synch) and again slogged to the weather mark with Bill in extreme discomfort on the leward side of the boat. He just is not meant for light air!!! I am thinking that much like sails, a driver should be able to bring multiple crew to a regatta and then pick the one that is appropriate for the conditions!!! ;-) Anyway, the race finished much like the two before with us picking-off boats going downhill but this time getting a few more on the last short beat to the finish to keep about 9 behind us for the race.

Sat night was a fairly normal 505 regatta with beer, Mexican food, more beer, sailing lies, a trip to the bar and the store for more beer and ending with Geoff and Bill Jenkins the last men standing. Nothing new there.

Sunday greeted us with more gray and more precip. The races were eventually cancelled, but that was after Tortuga and Phlegm had already decided to bag-it. Having accomplished all our attainable goals.

So- the score card Goal: Get a lay-of-the-land in Santa Cruz- accomplished Goal: Get better at rigging the boat alone- accomplished Goal: Meet some more of the fleet from other parts- accomplished Goal: Don't break boat- accomplished Goal: Don't embarrass myself (on the course, anyway)- accomplished Goal: Beat one of the Pegasus boats- accomplished Goal: Get more time in big air- failed

So I guess we'll just have to go back and do it again hoping for more wind!!!!

I would strongly suggest to anyone in the fleet to try to make the trip this year, regardless of whether you are going to the worlds or not. It is a great opportunity to race a totally different (but beautiful) venue with some new people of all different calibers and it teaches you a lot more as the comfort level of local knowledge is gone and you have to think more about every aspect of the race.

Thanks to the Santa Cruz guys for a great day of racing!!!

Geoff Nelson