22, Spring One Design - 4 Races, 0 Throwout(s)
The Spring One Design was quite a test after a winter of gentle breeze/no breeze sailing. Saturday's races began with plenty of wind and a flood current to deal with. The combination of a long starting line (thank you RC!) and the flood enabled a start with no recalls... a feat repeated for all four weekend races! The secret to success on Sunday was sail handling at the marks and power management up the beat. We heard reports of people in the water (I saw some poor foredecker hanging off the wrong side of the lifelines... ) and a number of problems with tangled lines, torn sails and of course, a broach or two! Waves were large and it took a pretty good crew to keep ALL the water off the driver!!! Saturday began with much less wind... which allowed us to enjoy the rain and decreased temps!!! It was wet and freezing cold. Instead of Sundays city front races, we were sent to the Berkeley Circle to avoid sailing across the shipping channels in the wildly clocking Northerly, no - North North Easterly... wait, North Easterly... oh no, Easterly winds. Two short races in great winds and moderate waves and a welcome clearing sky later in the second race were our reward for braving the morning rain. The roundings were fairly congested and it paid to get there early ... I even learned a new word that I couldn't find in the rule book!!! All in all, a great start to the season. Saturday's long races showed us just how much work we need to do for the rest of the races! Congratulations to Bandwidth winning the SOD this year.