Columbus Day Regatta 2007 Results

Coming into the Columbus Day Regatta weekend, the forecast was looking similar to Harvest Regatta.
SAT...SW WIND... BECOMING S 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES... BUILDING TO 6 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. NW SWELL 8 FT AT 11 SECONDS. CHANCE OF RAIN.
SUN...S WIND... RISING TO 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS TO 35 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 5 FT. NW SWELL 8 FT. RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON
Saturday was light and fluky which is not good when the current is a knot or two... Ten Santana 20's made the trip for this fun regatta.

Choosing to avoid current but finding less wind... placed us in 4th for race one. The wind was a little more stable at the beginning of the second race but it totally shut down at the end. We were withing 200 feet of the finish and barely making progress as we short tacked the north shore to stay out of as much current as possible. We had a comfortable lead in terms of distance but nothing was comfortable with the conditions. We struggled to maintain enough speed to overcome the current and make progress toward the finish. Although we never lost ground, it was a painfully slow process... Only our pain was just beginning!

We could see wind coming across the bay and realized it was going to reach the boats behind us first. A big Santana 30/30 coasted up along side us to leeward. And then the boats behind us started to move, and not just a little. They all took off and we sat there waiting for the puff to reach us. Only it never arrived... That is until almost everyone had passed us and we finally had clear air and crossed the line in 7th. Talk about getting run over! Fortunately, we won the last race of the day with reasonable wind.

On Sunday, the wind conditions live up to the forecast. That's good for us generally. We got a good start and nailed the first shift to take the lead around the first mark. On a close reach to the next mark our spectra jib halyard breaks. I went forward and rigged the genoa with our spin halyard and off we go without losing a position. After making our way under the bridge, we beat our way to 7 in the swell coming in the mouth of the bay. We round the mark and begin reaching with our genny. When a couple kites finally go up behind us, I go forward for another halyard swap and we're off. Looking back we notice Doug (in second place at the time) goes fishing for Yaquina Bay shrimp...
Pictures taken by Ken Brown on Sunday, October 7 in Yaquina Bay, Newport Oregon

We hung on to win that race and the next two without using our spinnaker again. The second race of the day was two quick laps in the middle of the bay (12A, 12, CG). The wind angles just never called for the spinnaker. And that was also the case for the final race.

A pretty good recovery to come back from a 4th and a 7th and finish with 4 bullets. That was good enough for second place in the regatta. Paul sailed a very consistent regatta with three pair (1's, 2's and 3's) for first place. Congratulations and thanks to Doug and crew for giving us something other than race 2 to talk about.

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