MBYC Turkey Day Regatta

Six, 505s were out sailing this past weekend in unbelievable beautiful Santa Ana conditions.  Hard to imagine sailing in shorts and t-shirt in November, but that’s what mother nature delivered this weekend.  Both days started with a calm to slight east wind in the morning with a north / west filling during the day.  We had 7-10 knots in the afternoons.  Some of the details are a little fuzzy – but here is how it happened as I remember the day. 

TGIF adjusting the rake system.  Note  technique: beer in one hand tape measure in the other	Team Kitty (aka Heavy) bulking up for the light air competition	Team Bollocks, doing who knows what ?

 Race 1.  The RC set a long tour de bay course and four boats (Gary and Jimmy on SIB, Geoff and Mike on Bollocks, me and Karl on TGIF, John and Bill on Kitty) started the first race in 5 knots of breeze.  The pin was heavily favored and SIB, Bollocks and Kitty were all set up to start on port at the pin.  Karl and I planned to start on Starboard at the pin and shut the door on the other three but had terrible timing and were set to cross well behind the other three boats on port, starting the first race DFL.  Fortunately, Stan was PRO and abandoned what would have been a miserable start for TGIF.  In the second sequence all of us started in clear air.  We rounded in third at the top mark and managed to pass Kitty and SIB by staying out of their luffing match.  Gary passed us on an upwind leg and got first.  We were second with Bollocks third and Kitty (aka Team Heavy) 4^th.

Race 2.  All four got off to a clean start.  We were in a strong lead to the second windward mark and had a mental lapse about which mark to round.  While discussing the location and correct approach to mark 3, we actually rounded the orange ball the RC used for the first windward mark.  Two other boats followed us with Gary laughing all the way to the correct mark.  We realized our mistake and waited for Geoff to pass us before telling him -- how sportsmanlike -- at least we told them.  We managed to catch Team Heavy to finish race 2 in second place.  Apparently, on the first leg, Bollocks and SIB had a close port / starboard crossing and went the protest room when Gary (on port) did not do circles.  The details are fuzzy but I am pretty sure Starboard typically wins those protests.  This was the first protest in the 505 class at MBYC in recent memory.  After the protest, results were TGIF, Kitty, Bollocks, SIB.

Race 3.  The RC set a somewhat short course.  We started to windward and slightly behind SIB and we were forced to tack away.  Sailed the shifts well on the course and were able to maintain the lead around the course.  The details are a bit fuzzy on the results of this one. 

Race 4.  Sunday morning conditions were exactly the same as Saturday, except that White Trash decided to join in the fun and Geoff decided to bag lead-mining and join in the fun with some potential new fleet members.  The RC set a long tour de bay course and we were able to get a reasonable start and managed to lead the race most of the way around.   Dan Merino, followed us around the course trading tacks in his highly modified 505 (modifications include inboard engine, large cooler, steering wheel, furniture, wooden spreaders ... looks a lot like a Catalina 30).

Race 5.   The fleet decided to skip the lunch errr... beer break so McKinney could catch his flight.  It turned out to be the right move.  

Kitty set up to leeward of us at the start and we were soon forced to tack away yet again.  That made four out of five where we were forced to tack away.  In race 5, as the wind lightened a bit, the boat felt somewhat sluggish and we watched as SIB, Kitty and White Trash mixed it up on the windward legs ahead of us. 

I am not sure what the finishing positions were in the regatta.

In the dry conditions, the the boats and sails dried quickly, leaving plenty of time for margaritas on the deck.