April 14, 2007 SoCalCup Long Beach

Report From US500

Well, we got wind, a little up and down through out the day because of the incoming dry front, but all races went off in 13-17 kts of wind. Gabor and Peter opted for 12.5s, not sure what these guys eat for breakfast and lunch but I want some. The rest of the fleet dug out slightly smaller, more sane, sail sizes ranging from 10.7 to Robert's new Maui Sails 12.0. We decided to have timed starts rather than rabbit which interjected a little strategy into the racing. This showed up in the first race when one racer when off on port while the rest of the fleet started starboard. There was more wind on the right side of the course and that port tacker reached the weather mark first and held that position to the finish. In the next race Gabor started port and won that one. There were some very close finishes through out the day to the point where we needed a RC on the line to call them. Having a timed start definitely made for more interesting racing and it was worth the effort.

We were going to try and run the Peter Bonello Inspired Tour de Long Beach Invitational race but the wind didn't stabilize until late and we needed to get at least 3 races as SDWA was using this days results as their make up race from last weekend. This race takes about 45 minuets to run and as the crow flies is 11 miles long and it includes upwind, downwind and reaching legs. So the RC choose to run another short course race to give everybody a throw out. We will save the PBITDLBI for another day.

Thanks to all form coming and we will see you next month.

Joe.