CRA Winter Regatta 08

CRA Winter Regatta 08

On February 9th, we participated in the CRA Winter Regatta. We had an okay showing for us, with a third in the first race, and a fourth in the second race. This placed us fourth overall. The picture above will link to a gallery of photos that Da-Woody took of our boat. Crew for the race was Adam Storey, Geoff Davis, and Ricardo Papa. We were about 100lbs light on crew weight which actually helped us the first race because it was extremely light air for the first half. While we had a horrible start and quickly got rolled by the fleet (my fault), we quickly made huge gains by setting the reaching spin allowing us to catch up downwind. Unfortunately the wind started to fill in and we have zero chance of holding our rating in the 5-10 knot range. The important thing was that we got around the course very cleanly and had a good time practicing our roll tacks and roll gybes.

The second race allowed us to make up for our first start, and we got away clean from the boat end, but could not hold off the bigger boats to the first windward mark. We gybed early to stay in the pressure while most boats went for the lighter pressure near the shore with less current. Unfortunately we could not hold off the two FT10s and they were able to pass us downwind and hold their rating. French Bread won convincingly by over a leg on the rest of the fleet.

Sunday was a practice day so Adam, Theresa, Ricardo and I took Karma out to do some drills. The day did not start off promising with the bay looking like a mirror, but the wind actually filled in and we were able to get the boat on a plane while working offshore a bit. We saw French Bread out practicing also, as well as Stealth Chicken doing some testing. Another great day was had by all aside from a slight sunburn to my back.