Team Tortuga (6991)

Sunday, February 8, 2004

MBYC February Regatta

Team Tortuga, in their first regular season outing of 2004, demolished a star-studded field last weekend in Sail Bay. Weather was crystal clear, 70+ degrees and the wind was filling in at NW 8-10 kts and steady.

Race 1. With just minutes to the start, Team Turtuga joined Team Kitty and Family Blanche near the start for what promised to be a tight race. Team Kitty had a fine start, followed by Tortuga using a new tactice called the "rack-star" start. FYI- apparently RC only needs to see your sail numbers heading toward the S/F line to start a race- you don't have to be near the start area. Note to self: calcualted risk does not pay off- do not let crew make last minute pit stop.

The second calculated risk we took, not bringing a course chart, was soon to also prove flawed as well. As Kitty rounded the weather mark about 3 boat lengths ahead, gybe set and wire reached out away from the weather mark, Team Tortuga went deep straight at the starting area. Initially our thoughts that Kitty had forgotten how to gybe were amusing to us, until they doused and rounded a far corner mark... indicating to us this was not to be a windward-leward race but a tour de bay. Second calculated risk is a flop. Dousing our kite, we reached up toward the corner mark, crossing Blanche who appeard also to not have the course but was splitting the difference in the two courses we had taken. Rounding the reaching mark, we re-set, re passed Blanche and rounded yet another leward mark. This one turned out to be the real leward mark as Kitty, despite having a course sheet, proves that no matter how many aeons you have been racing in Mission Bay, course sheets are useless if you don't go to the right mark! The field being sufficiently spread out, we finished the parade and went in to drink beer while all the rest of the fleets ate lunch. Notable guests at lunch were Tom McKinny (fishing????), Dan Merino (baby sitting), and a 5o5 groupie (studying).

Race 2. New tactics. 1) Make the start on time. 2) Bring course chart. 3) Read the course chart. Many of you may think this is fairly obvious, but I can assure you that for the 5o5 fleet (now whittled down to Toruga and Kitty), these three things seemed to constitue a victory in itself! The second race started with both boats nearly even but Kitty a little to weather. The entire second race was very close with neither boat showing a clear advantage. At the second to last weather mark(2) Kitty reached away toward T(s) and Tortuga went for the second lap of 7-2. After realizing that one of us had misread the course number on the Barca (Kitty only seeing one lap and Totruga thinking two laps) we decided to be the bigger boat and wire reach in to their course to make a race of it. Coming in that hard, we were not only able to catch up but passed in front of the Kitty by 2-3 boat lengths. Having a solid 3 boat lead going into T I decided it would only be corinthian of me to hit the mark (my third of the day) so when we finished up our turn, we would be in position for a fantastic tacking dual right as the wind dropped to 3-5 kts. Tortuga takes the gun for race two after a hard fought tacking battle.

Race 3. Due to age, John and John had to bring in a replacement to drive Kitty in the third race. Something about LJ sailing coach, Princeton collegiate... I can't remember the details but we were not impressesed. After we saw him sail we were. Both boats had a good start, great weather leg where both boats were keeping flat and equally fast(the wind picked back up to 8-10) and we went for the leward mark. Tortuga had Prince Kitty by a few boat lengths going into the leward mark so, again, in the spirit of fairness, I again hit the mark and we did a turn to even out the field. Kitty held tight but blew a tack soon after and struggled to get back into it. Kitty did have a great race and for one more show, they had a fantastic wipe-out with the chute up near the last leward mark (T). Tortuga takes the gun again but I think Kitty may have had more fun.

Geoff Nelson

Final Results

Tortuga 2-1-1

Kitty 1-2-2

Blanche 3-DNS-DNS

The Kitty Rebutts -

The Victor (Team Tortuga) always writes the history, as it should be. A few additions, however, seem appropriate.

Race 1.

Team Kitty, pleased that it had determined that the first mark was an Orange Ball, rather than an "F Flag" did forget about where Mark 6 might be. We dropped a solid lee bow on Team Tortuga and rounded first. When we saw Team Tortuga sailing towards the correct mark, we committed to looking at Mark 5 & hoped they might follow. They did. (It is best, when sailing against Kitty, to make darn sure you know the course. History repeats itself!)

Race 2

Team Kitty is catching the "mark hitting" problem from Tortuga, We also hit the T Mark prior to the final leg. It had come adrift. Just after Tortuga did their 360, we did one as well. It was the proper thing to do.

Race 3

Doug Trunbull did drive. He had a huge grin as he and John took off from the Junior dock for the race. An even bigger one coming in!

John Billings II

Team Kitty