Arbitrage wins Encinal J/105 One-Design Regatta
by J/Boats 1 Apr 2023 14:54 PDT
March 25-26, 2023
Arbitrage wins Encinal J/105 One-Design Regatta © Encinal Yacht Club
The Encinal Yacht Club hosted their annual "spring fling" on the northern part of San Francisco Bay for a huge fleet of J/105 one-design sailboats.
Called the One-Design Invitational Regatta, hosted by EYC from March 25-26, 2023, the racing featured traditional "around the buoys" racing on the infamous Berkely Olympic Circle and random-leg racing with government buoys for other races.
On Saturday, there was a light northerly on the Berkely Circle, so the J/105 fleet faced a stiff ebb running from north to south, fueled by a persistent rain that has fallen over NorCal the past two months and enhancing the flow of the Sacramento River that feeds the Bay with fresh water, e.g. it was "ripping" out towards Golden Gate Bridge!
This led to tough decisions as to hug the right side going upwind and avoid the adverse current, or protect the left for the anticipated westerly breeze that develops on most days starting in March/April.
Hedging their bets, Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault on ARBITRAGE managed the risks and won the six-race regatta with an enviable race record of 3-1-2-1-4-1 for 12 pts total (no throw-outs). Six points back was Doug Bailey's AKULA with a 4-4-1-4-2-3 scoreline for 18 pts total, 12 points ahead of Ian Charles' MAVERICK team with a 1-6-4-5-1-8 tally for 25 pts.
Bruce Stone commented on their performance, "this was tougher than racing on the City Front with its more predictable wind direction, and we ignored the tide and current charts, as they did not reflect the actual water flow we witnessed. There was hardly any flood as the fresh water from the interior of California enhanced the ebb and overwhelmed and rode over the twice-daily flood. The tide lines were demonstrable and most boats were steered by water color, as the river water has more sediment and is brown compared to the bluer ocean water."
On Saturday's third race, the course took competitors out to the notorious Blossom Rock buoy where they set spinnakers for a long downwind through the Oakland estuary, past the container port, and finished at the host club. NOTE- this photo above shows the cranes we sailed past, those "shapes" inspired George Lucas' design of the "Imperial Walkers" featured prominently in "The Empire Strikes Back"!! Cool story, bro!
Sunday was a bit of a bizarre day. In the end, Team ARBITRAGE enjoyed their final run down the Oakland shipping channel to the finish at Encinal YC in race three.
Commented Stone, a veteran IOR sailor in case any of you forgot (or didn't know), "we ran wing-on-wing for most of this leg, passing several boats and nearly catching AKULA at the finish. It was SUPER important to play the tack line, like playing the halyard on a blooper from our IOR days!" Gotta love that analog, eh?
Results and more information here.