Elvstrom Zellerbach regatta – Day 1

by Steve Bodner on 3 May 2010 Day one of the Elevstrom/Zellerbach regatta at St Francis saw the formula fleet waiting ashore as the dinghies made their way around the double windward leeward course in the light breeze.

Finally at 1300hrs with the breeze up to 10-15 knots and most of the fleet on their 10.0's in expectation of the building breeze, race one started, with Xavier Felet taking the lead after the first tack.

I managed to keep in tow until we got too far to the right and into the flood. I noticed Eric had tacked back early and was working the shore where the flood tide was less brutal.

I tacked but Xavier was quick to follow and soon overtook me with just a little more speed. As it happened, we both got the advantage over Eric as his port tack approach to the windward mark left him just shy of the mark and he had to double tack.

Xavier took a commanding lead and never looked back despite some pressure and local tactics from me.

Race two saw similar conditions with Xavier in front and me just behind leading the rest of the pack. Off the breeze, we both over-stood the bottom mark and let the fleet catch up.

This time I didn’t let the pressure off and waited for Xavier to make any mistake so that I could capitalize on it. On the final downwind run, it looked like Xavier was over-standing the bottom mark again so this time, I gybed for the finish with my line just barely making the finish boat.

I stayed out of the harness, digging deep and pumping the sail to go as deep as I could and managed to get the bullet! That's more like it!

Race three saw the breeze up to 18-22 knots with building chop. I made my approach to the starting line, making sure I had speed, but this time pulled the trigger a few seconds early and was OSC.

I quickly gybed around and restarted on port tack committing myself to the right side while the rest of the fleet - except for Soheil - made their way to the shore. I rounded just behind the pack with the Xavier, Soheil, Al, Tom and Chris all getting the jump downwind.

Slowly over the next three legs I was able to pick all but two of them off with some better tactics around the course. Downwind, I picked up one board by calling a better layline.

Upwind, I got another by heading the right side with more pressure, hiking hard and gaining on the boards to leeward. Finally at the windward mark, I was able to play my cards just right and squeeze off Eric with a fast rounding as he tacked at the mark while my port tack approach got me out of there quickly.

With one leg to go, I knew I had better speed and was catching up with Al but didn't quite have enough time to move into second.

So it stands after three races, Xavier sits in front with four points, myself in third with six points and Eric closely behind with 10.

Sundays breeze looks lighter and hopefully a chance to mix it up again.

Results:

 

Sail	Skipper	Yacht Club		1	2	3		Total	Pos
GBR451	Xavier Ferlet			1	2	1		4	1
usa4	Steven Bodner			2	1	3		6	2
44	Eric Christianson			3	3	4		10	3
USA-882	Al Mirel			6	5	2		13T	4
a	Soheil Zahedi			4	4	5		13T	5
USA18	Chris Radkowski			5	7	6		18	6
US-46	David Wells			7	8	7		22	7
US13	Tom Purcell			11	6	8		25	8
Z	Jean Rathle			9	9	9		27	9
USA-143	Marion Lepert			8	10	10		28	10
USA 314	Bryan Mcdonald			10	11	15/DNS		36	11
21	Lynn Olinger			12	13	15/DNS		40	12
J 6	Jack Lundquist			15/DNF	12	15/DNS		42	13
US 696	Saba Fazeli			15/DNF	15/DNS	15/DNS		45	14

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