Aldo Alessio Regatta - Three days of tight racing

by Erik Simonson, Pressure-Drop.US on 27 Aug 2014 Three days of tight racing with a buoy ocean combo made for a superb weekend during the 2014 Aldo Alessio Regatta hosted by the StFYC this past weekend. With nine different courses that would take the fleets out to Bonita twice on Friday, beginning with a flood for the first rounding in 12-15 knots, and then switching to a boisterous ebb with 15-18 outside the Gate and much more inside. The fleet, sailing course 5 would leave Harding to starboard the Alcatraz to port then down to the red number four buoy east of Point Blunt before sailing back uphill to Blackaller before finishing in front of the StFYC.

Zan Drejes helped pull together a team and a boat of Tom Sieble to compete in while his Sig 45 Vamonos recovers from broken mast syndrome, had some of the crew from his other boat, the Mod 70' Orion aboard to crew the borrowed J-125, Andy Costello's Double Trouble 'Really loved the course selection,' said Zan, 'It kept crews on their toes and always something interesting. We didn't sail on Saturday because Tom had other things on the schedule, but Sunday's race was fun too, with the ride out to Point Diablo and then below Alcatraz, back up to Yellow Bluff, back to X down to 21 again then up to Blackaller before the finish, was great.'

The racing was surprising tight for Friday's race with multible position changes for the 111's who mixed in quite closely with several ORR and PHRF boats that were not Swifsure, Whiplash or Double Trouble. The later played 'chase Swiftsure', which out waterlined the others considerably, but could not get quit enough separation to avoid Don Payan and crew on the MC 38 correcting out by 08:55 in PHRF and 00:03 in ORR!

In the ever competitive J-111 divison, no boat had a bigger comeback than Rob Thies's J-111 Aeolus which had a couple snafus during the first trip out the Gate on Friday and was at the back of the fleet as they headed towards the first leeward mark, but was in third when the fleet reentered the Bay on lap 2: 'We had some hiccups early and the breeze was light which did not allow us any opportunities on the first lap. But when things picked up a bit, we were able to reel in boats that had trouble with the building breeze and big ass bay ebb' alluded Aelus crewman Bryan Edwards.