Shots From The Race Deck

by Michael Moradzadeh

With the final warble of an anemic megaphone, we signaled the last finisher of the E. Ross Wood Memorial Regatta on October 19, ending not only the race but CYC’s 2002 racing season. We put on 45 races, from the massively successful MidWinter Regatta (ku dos to Mark Thompson, race chair) to the cozy membership races (Horsfall-Vincent, CYC-TYC, E. Ross Wood) to the long-running Friday Night Regatta.

The E. Ross Wood Regatta was enjoyable. 12 boats sailed in two divisions. I simplified the course out of fear of light winds (you don’t need to round Angel Island this year). The fear was unjustified, as the winds grew to a respectable 10-15 knots. Basic Instinct blew through the course in less than an hour and was followed by the rest of the fleet after about ten minutes.

One exciting view for the Race Committee was watching JR take it out on Truant. JR started about 3 minutes late due to some confusion about meeting times, but acquitted herself nicely on the field screaming through the course to finish neck-and-neck with the much longer Truant. Truant wanted to roll over JR, but JR would have none of that! As Truant tried to pass, JR (gradually and in a seamanlike manner) simply luffed Truant up to the moon. After one more try, JR broke free of Truant and crossed the finish line under spinnaker to take third in her division.

Box Result: E.Ross Wood Regatta
Spinnaker Division: Basic Instinct, Smogen III, JR
Non-Spinnaker: Tension II, Raccoon, Doña

None of this could have been done without our volunteers, and particularly our stalwart perennials: Tari Nix on keyboard, D.G. Tilton on flags, and Matthew Gorton on Mermaid. The list of other regular and sporadic volunteers is over fifty names long! Thanks to you all.

For next year, we will have a similar schedule, perhaps a few races fewer (no Friday night races in the dark, for example). We will also be considering trying a few ways to simplify the undue complexity (and noise!) created by the USSA starting sequence. We would also like to attract more of the one-design fleets to participate in our existing activities, and some efforts will be expended toward that end.

We’ll be looking again for committed volunteers. Training sessions will take place in January, and we’ll be calling around before that. But don’t wait for the call!

If you have an interest in race committee, give me a call or drop me a line (Michael@YachtPC.com).