505 SSA Fall Series/Acors Thompson
November 6-7, 2004

by Alexander Meller

Acors Thompson?

Saturday

"Driver: So, [in big puff] are we going to gybe through less than 90 in this puff?
Crew: I don't know, probably. Where is the mark now?
Driver: I dunno, let me check. Uhhh, I think its about 90.. well maybe just passed 90.
Crew: I think we should gybe now...[slow gybe... long too tight reach., and several minutes later]
Driver: How come we seem to be more powered up every time after we gybe?"

Places were changing, both upwind on shifts and downwind on wire running versus going low, staying in the puffs, and occasionally on raw speed. Four races were held Saturday. Macy Nelson/Greg Hryniewicz (at his 3rd 505 regatta) had excellent speed in the puffs and apart from badly overstanding one windward mark, were smart on the course, working through to win two races, and finish second in two more. Krysia Pohl (recruit from Europe dinghies, also at her 3rd 505 regatta)/Alexander "Ali" Meller led several races at times, but only held on to win race 2, falling to third in races 3 and 4, as Stergios Papadakis/Mike Renda won race 3 and were second to Macy/Greg in Race 4. The final race of the day was a five leg windward finish, and 2nd through 5th finished within seconds.

FOUR races!! It seemed like a good idea at the time (in the morning when fleet captain Bob and Ali polled the fleet and pushed the PRO into running four races instead of three). We were on the water from 10:15 to about 4:25, and we were COOOOOOOLLD.

After the four Saturday races, Macy/Greg were leading with 5 points, with Krysia/Ali second at 9 points, Stergios/Mike 3rd at 11 points and Jahn Tihansky/Dustin Romey 4th with 18 points, closely followed by Bob Patterson/Stephen Gay at 21.

Chef Kieran of Feed Your Crew had heaping plates of hot pasta with tomato meat sauce with wine or beer waiting for the sailors when they returned. I know I felt MUCH better after a hot shower and some hot food with a glass of wine :-) Feed Your Crew also had great breakfast sandwiches available both mornings, and a nice tomato and corn soup after racing Sunday.

Sunday

With no Macy/Greg and two point cushion on Sterg/Mike, Kyrisa/Ali tried to sail a little more conservatively and stay out of trouble. This worked for race 5 which they won with Jahn/Dustin second, a charging Bob/Stephen (who were in second for much of the race) third and Sterg/Mike fourth.

The final race was another five leg windward finish. Leading early, Krysia/Ali worked hard to keep it close by putting the spinnaker under the bow at the first douse (first leeward mark), barely hanging on to the lead as first Krysia and then Ali worked on the bow, and then putting the kite under the boat AGAIN at the hoist, nearly letting Bob/Stephen by, but just holding on again. At the last leeward mark Krysia/Ali were leading with Jahn/Dustin, Bob/Stephen and Sterg/Mike bunched, close behind. Sterg/Mike went hard left (a recurring plan for this team), found the knock and came out of the left side ahead of Jahn/Dustin and Bob/Stephen, but still behind Kysia/Ali, who took race 6 to win the regatta.

Overall

Eleven teams sailed Saturday. We lost three of those on Sunday, but gained two more. Not bad for an SSA Fall Series in November! This was a great event for the SSA 505 fleet, with eight SSA members racing, bringing the SSA member racing at SSA events average up to six. This may be of little interest to non SSA sailors, but maintaining fleet status at SSA requires -- amongst other things -- averaging over five SSA members at all events held at the club.

SSA PRO Mike Waters and his Race Committee ran a top notch event, with square lines and courses, windward marks reset for windshifts between races, and very little waiting. Since this was just an SSA Fall Series not an invitational for the 505s, we used the standard SSA SI with line starts and no throwout. At one point, I thought I saw a signal flag go up a second too late. The RC immediately postponed and then had AP down and new sequence started, within perhaps 30 seconds, almost no time was lost, but the PRO was going to have a perfect sequence.

Other Stuff

Jahn Tihansky forgot it was November and went out Saturday without a spray top. Only a Kokatat hat found in his pocket saved him.

Krysia/Ali did not have a usable spinnaker, but several competitors offered one. They ended up using Doug Watson's spare kite. Thanks, Doug!

The 505s were fairly sure we saved out time (on Portsmouth handicap) on the Solings Saturday, but the PRO claimed we did not on Sunday. But we have not seen the finish times.... With the 505s starting first on Saturday, the lead Soling would catch the tail end 505. And with the Solings starting first Sunday, the lead 505 caught the tail end Soling in the second race.

The first four boats were 24 or 25 years old!

We were unable to get Ken Jacobs a ride, but he came out both days on Race Committee to help with the regatta and watch the racing. Thanks, Ken.

Macy Nelson donated a main and jib for Cardiac Arrest, the SSA fleet boat. Cardiac Arrest was racing Sunday with these sails. Thanks, Macy.

Was that the "Flying Scott" seen racing a 505? Yes, I think it was. WOW, I have not seen him in decades! :-) Kevin Mehaffey was hauled out of retirement by John Hauser, they raced Ali's Rondar, with 8018 (Sol Marini's) sails, and probably a 7876 spinnaker. This was all a little too much for Hauser/Mehaffey and they adjourned to the bar after two races Saturday.

Krysia, Greg and Carlos Linares are all newcomers who tried 505s, loved them, and each was racing their third 505 regatta. Ken Jacobs was hoping to sail, but we were unable to hook him up with anyone. He served on RC one day and crewed on a Soling the other.

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