Closing Out Another Sailing Season

The results are in for the 2007 Harvet Regatta - Santana 20 class along with a description of all six races from the perspective of my skipper. Hopefully, we can race Sea Bear again in the near future.... perhaps the Great Pumpkin! Otherwise, the Columbus Day Regatta in Newport might be our last for the season. It's always fun to race on the coast.

Yaquina Bay racing is a bit like sandlot baseball or street hockey... All the marks are permanent buoys or dolphins for navigation. The courses feel something like "go down to the end of the street, around the light pole, the across the street and around Mr. & Mrs. Simon's car, then past the fire hydrant and cut through the Biondi's garden... First one back to the maple tree wins!" In addition to everything that racing throws at you, there's the tide and current to worry about (we're lake sailers...), there are crab pots to slalom through and the thoroughly confused weekend crabbers out in their boats wondering why all these sailboat simply have to come through their string. The look on their faces is priceless. Once they understand we're racing, they're cool.
Okay, back to racing... There's kelp and seaweed to avoid and flossing the keel when we don't. Running a ground can be a problem too! It's slow to say the least but sailing in the shallow water is the only way to gain ground against the current.
Also, it's been a while but they occasionally send us out to the Whistler (marking the bay's entrance at a depth of 100'). That's a blast.

I'm looking forward to it although it also signals the end of another season.