hypergeometric

I’ve decided to abandon my custom weblog in favor of a well supported option.

Hopefully this will encourage me to post more often.

This week I was able to ride along on a J105 named Larakin for the first four races of the StFYC Big Boat Series.

The first day was calm, and the morning race was a short up down up course. The second race took place in a bit more wind, and went from Treasure Island, to the club and back. It would have been a fairly uneventful race if we hadn’t fouled a boat at the mark. As a result we had to make two penalty turns, which put us second to last coming out of the mark. Downwind we picked up a few boats, and managed to salvage a 21.

On Friday, our first race was in light conditions, and we managed a 17. Our second race took place in typical San Francisco summer condiditons; winds at 25 kts with gusts to 35kts. The course was rather long. When we managed to turn the first windward mark, and set the spinnaker the boat began to humm. I looked at the speedo, and noticed we were doing 17.3 knots! It was quite a ride with a wall of water in front of us, and our main trimmer still pumping to initiate surfing.

The racing was a lot of fun, but I wasn’t able to go to any of the parties due to work, and my unexpected visitor. To me it seemed like just another race in the j105 series, but I guess the social events are what make it special. There’s always next year.

Today, I had a break, and tomorrow I weigh-in for the Etchells North American regatta.

I don’t think it can be called a humbling experince when you get walloped by a pro, but you’d like to think the boats would be a little closer to each other.

Its fun to see Mr. America’s cup. I remember finding the idea of racing to defend the America’s cup fascinating though I never thought I could stand three feet away from a competitor. Regardless Mr. Conner is an amazing sailor, and really quite amazing to watch in action.

For the first time ever, I dropped out of a race due to safety issues. I have to say it was the right call, but its still a little disappointing after waiting on the water for two hours. Hopefully we will be out tomorrow, and with any luck, we’ll have a decent start.

So after a week of yachting, I was refused entrance to a club this evening due to my shoes. The club is trying to keep a “high class” image, which apparently does not include a guy w/ a tie, dress shirt, sweater, and sneakers.

Needless to say I was dressed better today then 90% of the participents at the winners dinner for the Etchells NA Regatta. One of which is the heir to the Point Richmond fortune, one who is a land owner on Cowes, and most importantly two rich kids from Belvedere.