Overcast skies greeted 9-Finn sailors for the March 7 Mission Bay Yacht Club Short Course Bay Races. The wind direction was more out of the south than usual but the race committee was still able to set a nice Windward/Leeward/Windward course.
Race 1 got off to a good start with guys taking a hard left picking up a great shift. James Buley and Gregg Morton were battling each other for the win and didn’t notice Mike Entwistle sneak in for the victory as he was the first to notice the finish flag on the opposite (correct ;)) side of the RC boat.
Winds started to pick up and continued to shift back and forth through 5-15 degrees. Race 2 paid off big going right….on the first beat. On the second beat, the right was looking good again, Robert Kinney was looking great, but the wind never came back for this race, stretching to a 40-degree lift. This allowed Gregg Morton and James Lawson (who was sailing fast all day after not being in the boat for a while), to win big on the left and come in first and second.
Race three was more of the same with James Buley, Robert Kinney, and Jim Hecht all playing it smart and pulling off the top 3.
This pattern continued all day. Play the shifts, keep looking upwind to see how the other fleets were pointing, and don’t get too far away from the completion. Downwind was also tight as the occasional gust seem to compress the fleet up just in time for the leeward gate.
By the last race, the wind had picked up even more. David Pearce decided to make things interesting downwind by executed a very dramatic roll to windward and capsized. Picking a good spot in the bay, with enough depth to go turtle. The RC support boat was on it and Goli played the role of supportive competitor and sailed over to offer assistance, picking up the sportsman award for the day. In the end, the boat was righted, no damage done and David was able to sail back to the beach.
There was a lot of good, tight racing, many overlaps at windward and leeward marks, with 5 races completed, with no chickens counted until you cross the line. Link to results below with official top 5 as:
James Buley
Michael Entwistle
Jose Manual Goli
Lee Hope
James Lawson
However, note that Robert Kinney was not sailing his usual boat. Instead of sailing number 77, a boat previously at SDYC, now heading to Newport to help build the growing fleet there. So the results don’t accurately reflect Roberts's excellent performance on the day. Robert was at the front of the fleet all day, pretty sure he got at least one bullet and would have been top 3 overall (frankly not sure if it would have been 1, 2, or 3).
Article by Michael Entwistle (USA70)
Photos: From Mike Dorgan File (No current shots)
Full Results here.
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