Yes it was a truly perfect day of sailing.
Six teams braved sixty degree temperatures on a spectacular Indian Summer day this past Saturday for some truly wonderful sailing. Teams venturing out on a day that featured a 6-10 knot westerly included Team Spot, Ali Meller/Peter Epstein, Breton/Breton, Nelson/Breton/Romey, Place/Place (look out for those twins), Freedman/de La Rie. Nick Nelson and a friend, with the help of Joe Chuchla and Dustin Romey, set a short triangle course just at the mouth of the river.
We pushed off from the beach a little after 12 and by about 1 pm we were racing. We managed to fire off six or so races (all triangle courses,finish on the reach) that featured tight reaches (at least after Jesse Falsone reset the course after hopping onto the whaler) and mostly trapezing conditions. We started each race with a rabbit start under a two minute sequence, which seemed to work pretty well, with little delay between races. Team Spot mostly dominated the day with a a handful of bullets. But de la Rie/Freedman also won a few, including the race to the clubhouse, excelling in the light conditions. No one kept score in the "spirit of the holiday" -- that and the fact that no one wanted to swell Barney's head even more.
Many teams plan to go out this winter when the weather is good.
Cheers,
Allan Freedman