So we just got home, unpacked and put our 2nd place etched glass vase up on its perch with Minor Threat’s other hardware and upon a little reflection thought I would finally put a really fun regatta down on “paper”. It started last month with a phone call from Grand Prix Sailing Academy asking if I would like to come down and skipper one of their 1D35’s with my own crew in the up coming CYC Midwinters on San Francisco bay. I had done very little sailing on the bay with most of my time being in and around Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest racing my own 1D35 named “Minor Threat” and I immediately said yes to the invitation. First of all everyone at GPSA is awesome, fun and super helpful and made it very easy for us to come down. The Midwinters were split into two separate weekends, Jan 19th-20th and Feb 17th-18th with a total of 4 long distance races being raced. So we loaded up the car and drove down to Tiburon to do some sailing against the legendary San Francisco bay sailors. We got down on Friday, met the Tiburon police (something about needing bathing suits in the hotel pool) moved the boat and prepared for our first race on Saturday.

Saturday: we did a 10:00 am show at the boat, rigged the boat and decided to get out a little early and practice. We sailed in light breeze and sunshine and worked up the bay and gybed back down to get into sequence for our start. There were 8 1D35’s on the line and we got into position and got ready for the start. At this point we noticed no course no reader board etc (like the PNW) and thought to check the S.I’s. Sure enough the colored flags were the course and we set our tactician to work and decided we would just follow the fast boats. We nailed our start in light air, got the boat moving and sailed wind pocket to wind pocket on the course, well as luck would have it we put our nose out front and noticed we were leading the fleet and it was time to get out the course again and figure it out. We had off and on breeze, a fun reaching course and settled in to race. We were slower than we should have been down wind on a couple of legs and the boat Yeofy saw a shot and took it and got by us. They raced a great race and we got second for the day.

Sunday: A little more breeze, great racing, we were late on the start and could not get ahead in the parade. The 1D35 crowd is a good one with great sailors and when you are off the pace you are off the pace. We finished the day with a 4th after Yeofy got by us again with Double Trouble and Sweet Sensation sealing our 4th place finish. We headed back to Seattle with a 4th place only 2 points out of first. So……..we had to come back and finish the regatta in February.

Flew into town on Friday as much of my crew drove, we set up shop again in the Tiburon inn and we drafted a couple of local young ladies for open crew spots courtesy of Ellen Hoke at GPSA. Mario and Gary from GPSA graciously loaned us Great Sensation for another go and we got ready to go.

Saturday: This may have been the craziest no wind current filled sailing I’ve done. We went across the line in first, put the nose down and went across towards the island only to see our forward progress stop so we tacked back and went for the Tiburon shore. At one point short tacking the beach I noticed after two tacks boat speed seemed ok but we were not going anywhere. That’s when I noticed we were aground and that “boat speed” was just the current going by…………we sailed all day and caught the leaders only to be unable to get around the last windward mark in the time frame. We still rounded “under power” to prove our mastery of the elements. No one rounded and we all added a point to our scores.

Sunday: The rumor was 25 to 35. We adjusted the rig, went with the number 2 so we would be ready and, and, and nothing. Very little breeze, lots of current and you needed luck on your side. Yeofy played it right again as did Sweet Sensation. We had a “close” start with Tabasco who sailed well also all of us swapping the lead with Alpha puppy in the hunt. I tried to keep Tabasco and Sweet Sensation covered and then of course here comes commercial traffic right through the fleet, we chose (wrongly) to go to the starboard side to avoid the wind shadow and got beaten badly by those to the port side. The freighter blew his horn at a group of boats and to show good seamanship and let the freighter know we all heard him Mario and Sweet Sensation started the motor and were forced to retire. What a day….we got another fourth behind Yeofy, Alpha puppy and a first place Jazzy which sealed our second for the series. I just can’t thank GPSA or CYC race committee or my crew enough for a great event and good fun. Thanks! And we’ll see you all in the fall for big boat series and Nationals.

David Marod
Skipper 1D35
USA 35009 Minor Threat
USA 35045 Great Sensation

02/28/07