West Coast Championships

We arrived back in Seattle today at 4 PM and Katy is still buzzing with excitement about her regatta. I’m sure she will want to tell each of you all about the trip in her minimalist Katy way. In the meantime here is the recap.

Sailing in San Francisco Bay is one of those rare places where you are guaranteed great breeze, big waves and big current. All the locals assured us that by afternoon we would have a peak breeze of 15 kts which would make for some pretty fun racing. The Race Committee was pretty slow getting the first sequence off and by the time they got it going the morning fog had burned off. The thermal was starting to get going and it was blowing from 12-15 kts with flat water. Katy sailed really well and placed 5^th.

By the time the second race of the day was sent off it was starting to blow hard from around 18 to 23 kts. Along with the bigger breeze the tide had switched which meant that the waves got really big almost right away. Katy had a bad start but played a couple smart shifts and passed a bunch of boats and rounded the weather mark in 9^th. She immediately passed a couple more kids, but as Ann told you that’s all I saw. We were busy pulling one of her teammates out of the water. As Katy tells it she wound up having a bad gybe and buried her bow into a wave. Her boat filled up with water so she couldn’t sail downwind until she bailed the water out. The fleet passed her, but she sailed the course and finished the race. Several kids either did not start this race, choosing instead to remain tied up to their coach boats. Several other kids started but didn’t finish this race. One of the local boys who is a very good sailor was telling us the next morning “those were VERY tough conditions.”

Day 1 had mixed results but Katy was still in the hunt for her top 7 spot. She was exhausted and after attending the yacht club social event, then watching a little bit of the Olympics she slept like a rock.

On Sunday we figured the Race Committee would get the races started right away at 11 AM. We were hoping to get 4 races in quickly so she could get a throwout. Liz her coach told me first thing that morning that the forecast was for more wind than we had on Saturday.

The first race was completed in a very light northerly with about 3 ½ kts of current. It took Katy 17 minutes to sail to the weather mark, and less than 2 minutes to go downwind to the leeward mark (about twice the distance of the first leg). Katy sailed well and finished 7^th.

The second race was run in slightly more breeze and still with a pretty big current running. Again Katy finished 7^th. This was a good trend if she could keep it up.

By the time the third race was started the afternoon thermal had filled. Now it was blowing around 18 to 23 kts with really big waves again. Katy sailed really well, rounding the weather mark 7^th. She managed to pass a boat downwind and had a great leeward mark rounding to round in 5^th. She held off the boats around her and finished 5^th.

She was very tired by this point but the committee was going to run one final race to ensure the throwout. Liz and I sat in the coach boat watching the starts before the Optis. There were 4 starts before the Optis, which meant that the Optis wouldn’t be starting for at least 25 minutes. However, the breeze was building with each passing minute and so were the waves. Finally the Optis got their last start of the regatta off in the biggest breeze (solid mid 20’s) we had seen all weekend. There were several Optis capsized on the starting line by this point. Additionally there were three Lasers capsized by the weather mark, several other boats capsized at various places on the course, and a couple Lasers that had been dismasted (two of the masts actually sank to the bottom). Anyway, Katy had her best start of the regatta, and rounded the weather mark in great position 6^th, right behind two other boats. She worked her way over the two boats ahead of her, heading toward the leeward mark in 4^th. However, this is when her inexperience in the bigger breeze and waves was a problem. She eased her main out a bit too far and started to death roll (capsize her boat the wrong direction, over to weather, which means the boat is rolling over on top of you). From our vantage on the coach boat we were both certain she was going for a swim (Katy assured me later that she thought she was going for a swim too). Somehow she managed to save it and not capsize, but again her boat was full of water and she had to get the water out of the boat before she could get going. So the fleet passed her and she finished last. Last wasn’t really so bad since several boats didn’t start, and a few more didn’t finish this particular race. However, she was pretty disappointed.

After the long sail back in, and a couple hours waiting for the results to be finalized we found out what you already know. She placed 7^th, the last qualifying spot for the US Opti Team Trials.

We are very proud of her. It was a great weekend, and she is actually a really fun road trip companion. Attached is a picture of her right after the start of her first race on Saturday. She is right in the middle of the picture, sail number 12944.