Last Weekends Mid-Winters Regatta, MdR Venue

, 21 Feb 2007 22:03:24 -0800 > >Dear Mateys, > >Our boat,Shpritz, and our fellow members in the Venture MacGregor Sailing >Club, Windsong, and Faire Warning were in the Mid Winters Regatta, in the >cruiser class race in the under 30' division. THe Midwinters Regatta is the >World's largest regatta taking place in mutiple venues, habors, and >different classes, from radio control model boats to A Class 80' yachts, >all on the same weekend. >> >>The morning of the regatta, I found my boat's battery dead, so we had no >>radio to recieve on the water messages from the Race Committe Boat. This >>shouldn't have been a problem as we had written race instructions, the >>schedule of fleet starts and their respective color flags, course numbers, >>charts, and visual siginals from the Race Committee to keep track of >>things. > >We nailed the first race start, but sandwiched between Faire Warning and >Windsong, I tacked away ASAP. Then.. Committed unforgivable mistake of >forgetting to check for course number after watching previous starts using >course two, so Eric and I foolishly sailed off to Mark B while the rest of >the fleet rounded Mark A, puting us half a mile or more behind our group, >and played a futile game of ketchup thereafter. Oh geez, when will I ever >learn???? >> >> Fun sail tho and we weren't the last across the finish line, so didn't >>hold up the festivities. >> >>After waiting around for the start of second race, at too great a distance >>from the RC boat, Eric noticed the boats in the racing fleet lining up and >>passing the committee boat, accompanied by a horn blast. I told Eric, no >>worries, they're just "congregating" but we sailed over to investigate. >>Committee member shouting "You call that a start??" really peeked our >>curiosity, so when we noticed the fleet continuing in the direction of the >>furthest bouy in the course, 2ES we figured we'd just cruise along for the >>fun of it. After ten minutes we began to think that there was really a >>race going on, so we decided to sail in earnest. This time we went >>inshore while the rest of the boats sailed out, and we found calmer seas >>and favorable winds, so favorable that we rounded 2ES not far behind Mike >>Inmon's lead boat and ahead of Me Mie, the tricked-out Columbia >>Challanger 24 from Redondo Beach. 2/3rds the way down the last leg we >>figured out what the course number was, when Mike and the boats behind >>were noticeable saililng above us! We heated up Shpritz as >> much as possible by tacking down wind and were able to stay on the tail >>end of Mike's wake at the finish, while distancing ourselves along the leg >>from Mike Devine's racer, and copped second place, ahead of Windsong, >>even! Mike of RBYC won both races on corrected time and took home first >>place, Joe got second place with second and third place finishes in the >>regatta. >> >>But mainly, a beautiful day, a great day of sailing was had by all. We >>were somewhat delayed at our dock by a fair maties' offering to share with >>us a bottle of fine French Champagne, but we got back to SMWYC (Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Club) in time >>for the awards ceremony and still plenty of BBQ chicken and Chilli to >>eat. I think between cruisers and PHRF B and C we had over 35 boats, and a >>packed room full of sailors in the ballroom of the yacht club afterwards. >>Not bad! >> >>Best Regards, Jerry