Fleet 12 May Newsletter – Wow did the last few weeks ever fly by. We are now just hours away from our first 2 day regatta of the season - SFYC's Elite Keel.

What's in this edition:

*Recap of the 5/1 fleet race
*Boat Expo
*Reminder of June 5 venue exchange with July 10
*Good things to do with trophies
*North Americans
*Letters!
*Actors Studio - Time to send them in!

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The Race Recap - Scores
If you aren't scored and are receiving this newsletter, that means we have not received your fleet registration yet.

From Scott Gordon: The 2004 version of the annual "Seven Knots to Heaven" regatta was once again run by John Sutak, on his gorgeous Grand Banks, the Irish Rose, in fond memory of one of his late, legendary crew members. This regatta comes with a handsome perpetual trophy, a large framed calligraphy piece.

The regatta featured the gamut of conditions from a light air prestart and 10-12 knot first race, building to a 18 knot second race and then dropping a little for the final two races, which were sailed in gradient conditions of about 16 knots at the top of the course, dropping to about 13 knots down at the leeward end.

The current conditions were varied, starting in a dying flood tending to push boats across the starting line for the first races, triggering one general recall, and indicating a go left kind of day. At the top mark, the ebb was ripping early, and many boats overstood the mark on port and on starboard. But this effect actually tapered during the day, and for the last two races the current at the top mark was much reduced.

There may have been a bit more breeze on the left part of the course, but shifts and clear air were more important. The wind was a little shiftier than usual, and some beats featured 10 degree shifts. We didn't measure the period between oscillations, but it seemed long, maybe only enough to indicate two tacks per leg, even though the course seemed a little longer than our usual fleet event courses. Numbers I remember were 174 and 254. Legs were pretty square, and although we did sail two down wind legs without gybing, they were not really fetches. We just had to sail almost by the lee (and then managed to pooch the floater douse both times).

The RC set up a typical "I own this beautiful RC boat" line, pin end favored by a few degrees. This is also good practice on the circle, where many boats seem to want to go right no matter what. The pin end did draw some boats, especially in one race where a last minute shift favored the pin end by more than 10 degrees. The line was a little short for the first few starts, but Sutak and company ironed that out quickly. All the starts were competitive, to say the least, and we on 1168 got buried at least twice, forcing us to tack away for clear air and duck a few boats to find a lane.

Going fast all day dept: 905 and 966. 905 seemed to be on the line going fast in every start, and was first at a couple weather marks. 966 had great boat speed all day long, but had a few incidents which may have hurt their results. 547 had a race where they were first at the weather mark, and 922 was fast in most races too.
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Pacific Sail Expo Recap

First off a huge thanks to: Bob Branstad, Dale Hoffman, Al Silva, Tom Oller, Ashley Perrin, Ed Kriese, Kers Clausen, Lindsay Horvat, Eric Arens, Vern Neff, Dan Brandt, Liz Hammond, Todd and Rob for volunteering your time, humor, boats, strength and patience for pulling off another race demonstration for the guests at the Pacific Sail Expo. We had at least 3 folks come out on the boats who were specifically interested in the Fleet - Mary Coleman (owner of Astra), David Wadbrook (stolen from the Melges Fleet we hope) and another person from St. FYC. Others rekindled or initiated a strong interest in sailing and racing.

We had some startlingly high wind in the Estuary on Saturday, managed to get off about 4 races with visiting crew, then called the demo to a close a little early and parked our boats at a nearby marina. Bob Branstad, his luxury motorboat was replete with Pringles and beer, thankfully shuttled us all back to Richmond. Sunday brought lighter breeze and a little rain, but everyone at the show still wanted to go sailing. After a full day and many races with lots of guests (thanks to Mary Coleman for bringing them on and off her protector). We had a nice tow back to Richmond and got all the boats put away before dark.
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Note that the Moseley Regatta and Fleet Regatta #3 have been switched.

Sailing days are the same, but venues will switch.

On July 10, we'll sail off the Tiburon Yacht Club and enjoy their hospitality after the racing.

Meanwhile on June 5, we will have Fleet Run event #3. This event is currently without a sponsor.

All you have to do is set a weather mark, set a leeward mark and then anchor your boat at the other end of the line. You get average points for the day, so it doesn't hurt your season, and you will learn more about
Etchells racing on that day than any day you're actually sailing.

Who wants to host the fleet racing that day? Please advise Scott Gordon as soon as you can!

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For those of you wondering what to do with your trophies....

The Etchells Fleet 12 Season Championship perpetual trophy is now on display at the St. Francis Yacht Club. It's a beautiful sterling silver wire frame sculpture of an Etchells with the kite up, mounted on marble,
all on a large wood base with each year's winners names engraved, going back to 1981.

Last year's winner, Peter Vessella and crew, has made the trophy available to the St. Francis for display. Many former winners of this trophy are members of StFYC including John Ravizza, John Kostecki, Don Jesburg, Chris Perkins, Craig Healy, and Peter Vessella.

When you walk in the front door of the StFYC, look at the case just inside and to the left. This beautiful trophy, created by Bill Barton, is hard to miss. The last few years the Season Championship trophy has only come out for the Etchells fleet annual banquet, so this is a good chance to see what all Etchells sailors are racing for!

The trophy will be on display for a few months.
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Etchells North Americans

Planning is well underway for a fantastic event in mid September. If you have friends in other Etchells fleets, please remind them of the dates (9/17-23)and direct them to the website for more information. The regatta dates will be a great coda for any sailors who may be doing Farr 40s and Big Boat here in SF. If you know folks who may be interested in helping with the NAs (and this means not you, Etchells Sailors, since you'll be racing), please contact Kers Clausen for more information at kcyc@aol.com.
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Oh gosh I just love getting mail!!

From Bill Barton:
I got back at end of Day on 5/1 from Bermuda. We started race week with a 1,5,1,1,1 and then had to hold on as Tim Lynch of San Diego made a bold charge. We won by a point. After the final race on Friday we did a harbor cruise on Tim Patton's barge (Tim is the IGC Chairman of the Etchells Class and good friend) ... then cocktail party and prize giving at the RBYC til 8pm ... then cocktails and dinner til 1 am and up at 5:30 am to escape the Onion Patch. Made many new friends and hope to get invited back next year to defend. I raced with Peter Duncan and Tom Blackwell.

From Al Silva:
Damage Patrol: On 1234 we broke the spinnaker pole fitting off of the track on the mast on our first spinnaker set, broke the outhaul out of the boom on the first beat of the second race, tore the compass off of the mast during the third race and finally broke the pulley on the aft end of the boom for the mainsheet on the 4th race.
(yikes - but he also said everyone had a good attitude about the weather so in the end they were all fine)
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Actor's Studio - A few of you have these questionnaires sitting in your inbox - it's time to send these in so we can all get to know our fellow fleet members.

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Good luck to each of you in this weekend's Elite Keel. Don't forget your extra paddles, buckets and radios (for safety). Feel free to send me your commentary on the weekend for the next newsletter.

Paige
epbrooks@yahoo.com

If you would like to get added to the newsletter or subtracted (I'm sure that's not the case) just send me a note directly.