RIO leads Pac52 Cup after a hat-trick of wins on Day 2
by Erik Simonson 30 Sep 2018 20:12 PDT
28-30 September 2018
Saturday's dawn broke over the San Francisco Bay Area with a tropical flare if you will, very reminiscent of the warmth and humidity one might experience in Rio, the iconic beach city of Brazil, from which Manouch Moshayedi's Ferrari Orange 52' has inherited her name.
It is a tad bit complicated, but the chain of grand prix boats that Moshayedi has owned has born the name.
With the same early season disturbance currently parked off the North Pacific, and now Hurricane Rosa spinning off the Baja coast, the weather in the Bay Area took a dramatic bounce in humidity and temperature overnight, and with it, a more southerly flow, complicating matters on the race course.
While beautiful, dramatic skies enveloped the race track for Saturdays scheduled three races, the winds were a bit on the "less than compliant or agreeing with forecast" side.
After a bit of a delay, the RC finally was able to get things rolling when the westerly flow replaced the early easterly, sending the fleet off on a 10nm course 17 in 10-12 knots. The fleet would all take the central bay up to the weather mark just inside the Golden Gate before bearing off on the first downhill sleigh ride to the #1 Green Buoy east of Alcatraz.
All boats NOT named RIO would take the northerly route over the former penitentiary, or "Little Australia" as the Kiwis like to refer to it. For the boat named RIO, the southerly route paid off in spades, arriving at the leeward mark with room to spare with BadPak, Invisible Hand and Interlodge rounding closely behind each other.
The next windward leg would have the fleet parading past the Alcatraz cone to the south, RIO retaining her lead but Interlodge shifting into high gear and advancing up to second by the third mark, and holding on to maintain that position on the short downhill run for another Hollywood finish. The results for Race 4 would show RIO with yet another bullet, Interlodge taking a deuce plus one to share a third with Invisible Hand and BadPak whiskers behind with a 4th place.
Race 5 started after another delay, as the aforementioned weather system continued to vacillate before settling down long enough to set a windward mark of 220 degrees, kinda-sorta real close to the edge of the StFYC clubhouse and in near proximity to an ongoing Woodies Regatta in progress along the City Front. The same course would be called for, although somewhat skewed and a tad shorter. Yet the results would be similar. RIO would jump out to an early lead and defend it to the weather mark, with Invisible Hand this time edging out Interlodge at the mark, and BadPak being able to slide through to round in 3rd before another fast run in flood to the #1 Green mark.
The wind would lighten and the fleet compressed yet again with RIO, The Hand, Interlodge and BadPak rounding in tight formation, with no change for the next two legs, now being sailed in flat sea and 5-7 knots of wind. RIO would hold on to secure her fourth win of the regatta, The Hand in second, Interlodge in third and BadPak in fourth.
The scheduled Race 6 finally got started after another delay while a frustrated RC tried to be reasonable with the unreasonable wind, with yet another minute OCS infraction by the impeccable Invisible Hand, which had returned to starting area when the abandon race hail was transmitted after yet another wild swing in wind direction forced the call. Attempts to reset proved unsuccessful and racing ended with five heats complete for the day.
Results can be found here.