regatta

PCC’s

Posted on by exploresb

Last weekend was the PCC’s(Pacific Coast Championships) for High school sailing. The event was held by Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club in L.A. The event is organized by PCISA and is the overall championships for all the west coast high school teams sailing CFJ’s. We got to the Yacht Club at nine in the morning to get everything done before the first start at eleven. This involved taking our boats off the trailer, stepping the masts, getting registered, and getting our sails from the race officials. Only after all this could we roll our bout down the launch ramp and dip it in the water. I was sailing in Gold fleet B division, so initially we would not be on the water. First our A team would compete in two races, then we would rotate so we could sail and they could have time to rest. During A division’s race, we were encourager to watch by our coach. The more we can learn before hand, the better prepared we would be for the conditions on the course when we got out there.

A CFJ is a two person boat, so each team has four people, two for A division and two for B division. My partner for B division was Paul Harteck.

Paul is an experienced sailer, but specializes in larger boats rather than the CFJ. Nonetheless, we still got out there and proceeded to win our first race. At the start, we came in late at the boat end and tacked off the line. We sent it out to the right side of the course until we got headed. Then we tacked and on our way up to the mark we got consistently lifted until eventually we were laying the mark. The rest of the fleet was forced to sail into the mark on a header, so by the time we got there, we were already in first. We maintained this lead for the next three legs of the race consisting of an upwind and two downwinds before we crossed the finish line fifty yards in front of the second place boat.

We finished our second race and came in to the beach to switch out. All in all, it was a great weekend of sailing with strong breeze and many races. By the time it was over, we were all exhausted. We finished in an overall eighth place out of approximately seventy teams. Not a bad spot to be in at the end of it all.

SD

Posted on by exploresb

This past weekend, Myself and four other students drove down to San Diego on Thursday night to take part in the Helly Hansen NOOD (National Offshore One Design) regattas in our boat, a J70 called Cake. We stayed at a house on Harbor view drive in Point Loma just above the San Diego Yacht Club. On Friday morning, we woke up, took our showers and made our self’s eggs and bacon for breakfast. We packed up the car and drove over to Coronado. On our way, we passed over the Coronado bridge where we could see the huge military ships in south Coronado bay where we would be racing. When we arrived at the Coronado Yacht Club, we started rigging our boat, however we did not get far before a competitors meeting was called. They went through the usual stuff, rules, courses, and agenda.

We left the dock at ten thirty as our first race was scheduled for eleven thirty. We cruised up and down the race course adjusting our boat for the wind and sea state. We got everything set up just the way we wanted it. Ten minutes before the first race we were feeling confident. We knew our weeks of practice would give us an advantage on the other boats. Five minutes before the race, we set our clock for a five minute countdown. Three minutes, we were debating where we should start on the line to get us to the favored side of the course. Two minutes, our minds were in race mode and we knew our game plan. At one minute, we were set up forty meters off the line and other boats were setting up as well. Ten seconds and we were ten meters off the line and we trimmed in our main, unfurled our jib and headed towards the line at full speed. At the gun, we were one meter off the line just to be safe so that we weren’t over early.

We sailed for a total of three days coming in tenth overall and first in the youth division. This means we have qualified for High School Keel Boat Nationals in Newport R.I. We packed up our boat, put it on the trailer and headed back home on Sunday night.

Golden Bear

Posted on by exploresb

Last weekend, the SBYSF(Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation), myself included, drove up to Treasure Island near San Francisco to compete in the high school sailing event The Golden Bear Regatta. It is a two day event in which around seventy high school teams compete in a series of three or more races. The event was held in clipper cove in between Treasure Island and the bay bridge.

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We arrived at the event at eight thirty to check in and get our charter boat. Our boat was then inspected to make sure it was in proper working order and then we were given our sails. We then moved our boat to the end of a long line of boats waiting to be put in the water. When our turn came, we rolled our boat down the launch ramp, lifted it off the dolly, and pushed it in the water. With our sails half way up, we rocked the boat over to the nearest tie up spot on the adjacent dock. With the boat in the water and all the paperwork in order, we returned to our team area by the rocks to get changed into our gear. At ten, there was a meeting to discuss the proceedings for the day. After the meeting which was over by ten thirty, we made our way over to our boat, raised the sails, and pushed off the dock.

When we got on the water, the first thing we did was assess the wind condition and sea state and set up the boat accordingly. The first race would take place at eleven, however it was delayed until about twelve thirty due to shifty wind conditions.

Eventually, the wind shifted to a stable westerly breeze and we started racing. Our first race was a windward, offset, leeward, windward, offset, finish down wind. We did not have a particularly good start, but during the race, we made up a few boats at a time. We finished in seventh out of thirty two boats in our fleet. Our second race went better than our first, we started in the middle of the fleet and finished half a boat length behind the first place boat, coming away with a respectable second place. All in all we had a fantastic two days of racing in a beautiful location. I am looking forward to sailing in our local event next week in Santa Barbara.