Totally Dinghy Regatta Report - Sept 14-15 Richmond Yacht Club, CA

by Jonathan Weston on 21 Sep 2013
Typically a warm up regatta for the Weta West Coast Championships (to follow the next weekend), the Totally Dinghy was totally awesome this year.

Saturday dawned with rare Southerly’s and foggy skies. (It was hard to believe that just a few miles up the bay, the second AC race was cancelled due to high winds). But light conditions made for close racing, a time for less experienced sailors to notch up their skills. It was a good day for Paul Martsen and Jared Brockway as they teamed up with some ladies for the local Cal Sailing Club. The girls added more stars to the social calendar but made a tough go of it speed-wise. Better luck next day.

Most improved sailor by far was Quinten Boe, whom previously barely managed to finish a race due to the gnarly winds we normally get slammed with. He gave the front pack a run for their money with excellent upwind boat speed. A little tacking practice and he’ll be a contender.

Yours truly was well prepared heading out to the start an hour early and sailing the course, mindless of the new fangled starting order, so he missed it by a couple of minutes, catching up to third by a few lucky sways of the current. Dave Berntsen and G Marc Simmel battled it out to a photo finish, G Marc taking it.

Second race I made sure that I hit the start on time or at all and got a lucky left hand shift, only to get passed when I sailed into a donut hole on the first reach. Second reach somehow passed them back over the top and held on for the win.

Third, got off to a great start and was sailing away, away, away to the wrong mark, well, the mark was moved, so had to beat back upwind to the downwind mark. Good to look around the course once in awhile. Dave took the win, so we three were all tied up after three. Dave had a radio on board to follow the AC race and told me that he was ENZ and I was Oracle.

Dave then reported that Oracle had just won a race, which I said, 'yeah we did,' and then he announced that he was now Oracle and I was ENZ. Fourth race I must have just gotten FLY, so dinner saw me one point ahead of Dave and two of Marc.

Sunday broke with clear skies, warm and dreamy winds. The whitecaps were a welcome sight for the Donut eaters to donut-ate. The Hot Now sign was lit. Dave gave the helm to his two daughters, so he chose not to show his hand for the WCW’s. They sailed a fine race and were screaming at the top of their lungs when the screecher went up. The boys with the girls stepped their game up and big smiles were seen all around.

The second race Dave took one daughter, and the third switched to the other, and I told him, 'I’ll be Chris Kitchen and you be Randy Smythe/Toni Sacco.' It would be a perfect judgment to note who would win the race, as the winds were about as strong as they would be for the following weekend, about 18 kts., and Dave and I are equal in speed mano e mano. With crew, he could be faster, slower, the racing would tell.

My results on Sunday were 1-1-1-1 so Randy is going to have his work cut out for him against Chris at WCW’s! Us amateur sailors will have fun battling it out for the AM’s trophy, which hopefully is better than the trophies handed out at the TD, a towel not big enough to wrap around your – waist. And, they announced G Marc as G Mac (I used to have one of those), and then skipped me altogether. Probably because I registered as KKYC (Krispy Kreme Yacht Club)

Hot Donutz 397

Results here:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=7265&show_crew=1
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