News and Events

We do not have the entire 2012 fleet 17 season locked up yet. But we wanted to get the tentative dates out there so you can start planning your team schedules:
mar 10-11: big daddy
mar 17-18: spring keel
apr 21-22: jfest
may 5-6: vallejo
may 19-20: elite keel
june: ??
july: ??
aug 4-5: tmc dist. 20 & WESTERN REGIONALS
sep 23-24: noods
oct 27 -28: great pumpkin

Who else is doing the Three Bridge Fiasco? So far five J24s have signed up. And I have it on good authority that On Belay will be there. So that’s six. Make sure your batteries are charged, running lights are in order and your outboard is working. It’s a long long race. Good luck to all.

Look at what the Easom yard is doing to this J24. It’s the old Smokin’ J.

Berkeley Yacht Club to the rescue.

We had the most idyllic weekend of the year. The predicted strong breeze did not come through and we ended up sailing in shorts and T-shirts. Rigs were dialed down, mast butts were adjusted. And to think that only last week the Big Boat Series was being pummeled by over 30 knots. We were also lucky to have at least some breeze compared to the dinghy regatta going on in Richmond. They all got hosed with drifting conditions. Welcome to our summer.

Captain Melissa did some frantic scrambling in August to ensure that we would have the best venue to sail in this weekend. The Berkeley Yacht Club really stepped up and rolled out the welcome mat for the J24 fleet. On short notice they rustled up volunteers for a Race Committee, they found RC boats for both days, put up the NOR’s two weeks ahead of time and published SI’s with plenty of time to spare. After the day’s racing the volunteers came back to yacht club to tend bar for us. Now that’s hospitality. So, special thanks to Falk Meissner and Bobbi Josse.

The regatta was dominated by TMC. They had speed off the start and never slowed down. A grand slam of bullets was the result. The fight for second place however was epic.

Downtown had the speed and the smarts downwind. They had ultra light crew on Saturday. So light that they were able to add a sixth crewmember on Sunday. Cameo appearances from Deb Tamburri, Lane from Breakthough and Michele Sumpton. It must have been something trying to roll tack with six people. But they pulled it off.

On Belay was fast upwind, but had poor starts and brain farts on the downwind. Still, the racing was awfully close entire time.

SUAD (that’s the accepted abbreviation now) was faster and higher than we’ve ever seen them. Highlights for them included crossing in front of TMC. Luffing up Downtown on a regular basis. Sailing smart and conservative so that they immediately took advantage of any mistakes. They got their fist bullet on Saturday. Third overall for the regatta. Well done Val, Caitlin, Zane, James and Antonio.
Little Wing made an ‘acte-de-presence’ on Sunday. It was great to see their familiar faces again. The crew immediately started to make life harder in the battle for second place. The best moment was the four boat cartwheel leeward rounding in the last race. I’ve never seen us that close together (video to follow). Somehow we managed to not hit each other, nor hurl any oaths or protests. What a fleet!
Woof was tenacious as always. One of their highlights came in the second start when they button hooked On Belay and consequently pushed the entire fleet over early. They were the only ones (as far as I could tell) that weren’t OCS. Nice one Woof. We all felt very lucky when the general recall signal came.

Cry Havoc (sporting some crispy sails) were the stars of the show though. Some late starts, but also some very competitive ones. Matt Harper and the crew consistently decided to split with the fleet and sail their own race. On Sunday morning Matt followed up on his promise from the previous evening. Braving the peanut gallery comments and the cold water he put on his wetsuit, grabbed a toilet plunger in one hand, brush in the other, and proceeded to scrub the bottom of the boat. It certainly made a difference guys. The boat was much faster on Sunday.

Next up is the fleet picnic, Val’s bringing the tunes. The next racing will be the Great Pumpkin regatta. For those of you who are uninitiated: The Great Pumpkin is a buoy race on Saturday and a pursuit race on Sunday. Both are a blast. The Saturday party at the RYC is a hoot. Most sailors get into the spirit of the thing by dressing up. I think this year’s theme is the Greatful Dead. But check to make sure:Great Pumpkin
Results

Melissa has reserved the elevated barbecue site on Ayala Cove for September 24th. It is up the stairs to the left of the field. Come one, come all who have a soft spot on or for the J24. If you don’t have a ride, let us know. We can probably arrange it for you.

The NOODS brought out more J24’s than expected. In addition to the core fleet we had competition from six young upstarts on Another White Boat, terrific sailing from Scott and the gang on Bad Fish and Matt Harper brought out Cry Havoc for some mid-summer punishment. But that’s not all. We had cameo appearances from more friends. Valerie Petit from the Wayzata J24 Fleet in Minnesota and Troy Pospisil the new co-owner of “Breakthough” were crewing on WOOF, and Alex Mouton the owner of “Trouble” came and crewed with Downtown Uproar. We were also thrilled to have Chris come out; he hadn’t sailed with us since Vitamin J left the fold.

Saturday started off nicely with a SSW genoa-breeze and flat water. We had a clean start in the first race. But an early port-starboard encounter involving four boats made for some hair raising close calls. Luther gave us all another lesson in sportsmanship. Not only was he the only boat to do two penalty turns but after the race in the redress meeting he admitted to not hailing protest and thus took himself out of contention there. Thank goodness no boats were bumped, but let’s all be sure to learn from this. When in doubt, do your turns and then talk about it afterwards on the dock over a brewski. We’re all friends after all.

The rest of the race was a close battle and we all got some spinnaker practice. Enough to deal with the much higher wind in the next two races. The third race on Saturday was a real sphincter clencher. Long, very long, upwind legs in very high breeze. Lots of position changes. Lots of windshield wiper seesawing on the downwind runs. I swear we surfed this one wave for what seemed like a full minute. On Belay was the cause of much comedy. During an epic battle on the last upwind leg they slowly reeled in the leaders and managed to get their nose in the lead. They were on the starboard layline for the upwind finish buoy. At the last second they shot up into the wind and got the horn. Ecstatically they started high fiving themselves. But in the meantime the boat slowed down and started to slide into the buoy. Oops. Now they were all entangled. Classic rule 31 violation. Remember, you’re still racing even if your bow has crossed, until you’ve cleared the finish line. They eventually convinced themselves to take a scoring penalty. Thankfully they were able to laugh at themselves too.

More comedy was afforded by Kaitlin at the StFYC docks. After the boat had made the freezing wet battle up to the yacht club and the crew were ready to fish out dry clothes from her car she expertly dropped the keys in the water. Frostbite ensued. Hypothermia threatened. Sorry guys!!.

The NOODS party was excellent. We were sure the 105’s would have fished all the beer and rum as is usually the case. But no there was plenty to go around. And go around it did.

I think we were all happy that we only had two races on Sunday. There was still plenty of breeze and we all struggled with our spinnakers on the waves. In a spectacular crash Downtown Uproar was able to show the world how clean they keep their keel. Nice job guys.

Another interesting phenomenon this weekend was the huge new RIB boat that Travis Lund brought out. It was quickly dubbed “the Black Pearl.” Cap’n Jack was running around following the fleet with his camera mounted amidships. Can’t wait to see the footage. All who are interested in taking their sailing to a higher level, I would highly recommend getting in touch with him. It’s certainly good for TMC Racing who again showed us all how it’s done.

Thanks for a great weekend everyone. Next up is the Lipton Cup. Also, plans are under way for some kind of fun race later in the year. A non-counter of course, the idea is to have a skipper exchange. Boats race with their regular crew, but with a different skipper. How will this work? Do we throw keys in a vase? More will be revealed.

Here’s some footage from On Belay. Lesson, if you plan to gibe make sure you notify your foredeck.
Wipeout SFNoods11

One of the advantages having a boat affords you is the ability to sail to Angel Island and stay past the departure time of the last ferry. Teams Downtown Uproar, On Belay, and Shut Up and Drive took time out yesterday to expose some of their friends to the San Francisco Bay summer wind pattern on the way to and from Angel Island (as it is a common local problem that people here are not sunburnt or brined enough).

Once the last ferry leaves, the day use and open picnic sites are empty except for other sailors, park staff, wandering campers, and the occasional stranded ferry passenger. In the past, we’ve reserved a semi-private day use site and had terrific parties, complete with music and kegs of beer, but this time we were unable to get a larger site so just went a-hiking until the ferry cleared out and we could move in to occupy the lawn and its grills. Awesome!

(Not pictured: frisbee, dancing, the other grill, the giant spread of food, people totally committed to having fun)

We’ll be doing a few more of these this year, possibly to other venues – if you have a favorite boat-accessible picnic site, please let me know!