News and Events

This is why the Great Vallejo race Rocks. The raft up.
The other great thing is that the J24′s swept the podium again, just like last year. This race is built for us.

Here is a nice exchange after the race:

Randall (Flight)
Don Ford and I ended up doing Vallejo with our wives and friends who had all never been on Flight before (yes, I am embarrassed that this was Cindy’s first time on the boat). We had great conditions this year with winds into the low twenties surfing under the OPBYC kite on Saturday and nothing above the teens for the beat home (really glad the forecasted 30s did not materialize). Very fast times this year, with boats in our class Saturday finishing in around 4 hours over 21 miles and 3 hours for the shorter 14 miles back.
The result was the same both ways finishing third in our 11 boat PHRF fleet behind Downtown in first and Shut Up in second. The 8 other boats in our fleet all the same or lower PHRF than the J24s who took 1,2,3 both ways. Darren and Val got ahead of the fleet early and seemed to just keep gaining on the rest of us as they battled it out for the lead. Woof was short handed with some issues at the starts, but as usual went on un-phased and had great races. Our fleet also included Don Taylor’s 40 foot classic Farralon Clipper VIP, with only 3 crew on the way up and Luther joining them for the return Sunday. Our Big Daddy nemesis American Standard proved once again that they have a vague understanding of the rules of racing, but they do have a willingness to eventually comply with them after discussion.
I had told Darren, my plan Sunday was to head home instead of racing, since it was still forecasted to blow 30 by 1400 with a crew consisting of Don Ford, Cindy and an 18 year old who had never been on a sailboat.
With all the delays getting out of the VYC log jam though I could not resist hanging out for the start. Then I realized it was a downwind start and I had not bothered to rig the kite. We set as soon as I had it rigged, and headed for the line at least a minute late. Then we just started passing boats with me and Don sailing the boat double handed. By the end of the channel we had caught up with you guys, but any thought of staying there ended when we attempted our first tack after the douse and realized Don had dropped the pole on deck without disconnecting the lines. Now that I think of it, he never has been on bow before…

Thanks to Dianne, Cindy, Andrew and Evan for filling in and I hope to see them all again on the boat soon.

Looking forward to Elite Keel in two weeks,
Randall

Val (Shut Up and Drive)
Sunday was a match race between us and Darren. It was really exciting trading positions all the way through San Pablo bay in ideal J24 conditions, wish we had more races like that. And our fleet proved again that J24 is very fast boat taking whole podium both days!

Darren (Downtown Uproar)
Great competition this weekend. Thank you all.
I think on Sat. we got a little lucky finding a nice position on the start line, after just barely finishing a head sail change. Val was able to eat away at this early lead as we approached the Richmond Bridge. I think Downtown was able to find great advantage by going further inside for more current relief after that. Screecher of a reaching spinnaker run around Pt. Pinole to Vallejo. (Can’t wait for Jazz Cup!)
Yup on Sun. Felt like SuaD and DtUr were able to convert well in that hairy convergence zone at the end of the Mare Channel. Exchanging the lead several times up the Carquinez. Val making up (what felt like) a wide deficit on us going inside around Pt. Pinole. We just tried to split every tack after that one, looking for whatever advantage we could. Got lucky on some lifts I think, and finally was able to cross ahead. Then even as much as we would have liked to take the fast current East of the Brothers, were not going to break cover on SuaD again. ;^) Still Val was able to close the gap on us by quite a bit. Another mile or so, could have been a whole another story.
Thanks again,
D

Randall
Still can figure why current relief Saturday was the brown water while the ebb was green. Loved that reach too. Glad we put Jazz Cup on the schedule this year too

Editor
Let that be a lesson to us: Change in color of the water is only an indication of a change. You can’t necessarily tell if it’s river water or ocean water.
Well done to all the racers. Send us some photo’s. Especially the embarrassing ones.

Well done to Darren and Steve for a very fast TBF. We asked him what his rationale was for going the way he did. Here’s a very insightful response:

Here’s my take on the 2013 Three Bridge Fiasco. Turned out to be a real fun one, with some challenging high winds at the finish. Always better than having to set the anchor, or rain.

Strategy and forecast.
During the week leading up to the race, it did not look like a sure thing that the front would move through in time. It would have been a very different race in light winds, and the strong ebb tide. Our start was at 9:33 almost exactly at max flood. Initially this seemed like it would be a difficult choice. Try and take advantage of what flood there was and go counter-clockwise (or Red Rock first). But, in light winds one could easily get stuck in the early ebb tide going around Yerba Buena Island. As it turned out, with the weak flood and strong ebb, there was a large counter current predicted along Krissy Field. Also, the final forecast was for mid to strong winds filling in out of the West Northwest. So, we figured for the start, as long as there was enough wind to make it around Blackhaller without getting stuck or run over by the fleets starting after us, we would go clockwise. Clockwise had the added advantage of finishing the race on a strong ebb current coming out of the South Bay.
The next decision was whether or not to go through Raccoon Straights or around Angel Island. In a previous version of the race (with similar conditions) we went around Angel Island, the fear being we would get stuck in the building ebb tide and light often flukey winds inside the straights. It is true, that there is a considerable amount of current relief around Angel Island vs. Raccoon Straights. But, it is also a considerably longer distance to sail around the island. The straights are essentially on the rhumb line between Blackhaller and Red Rocks. We noticed in previous years, even though there can be little to no wind in the straights, the boats that go that way rarely fare worse than boats going around. I think simply because they are sailing a much shorter distance. However, I have noticed that boats that hug the shoreline of Angel Island make the around course work out slightly better. Again, I think simply by vertue of sailing a shorter course. The forecast had the wind filling in the from the West Northwest so we figured (hoped) that even if it was light, this would flush us out. Through Raccoon Straights was our choice.
One more word on Strategy. Based on the wind forecast (and looking around the morning of), I try and pick the direction that will give us the longest downwind leg. With the slight Northerly component to the forecast, it seemed like we had at least a chance of a long run between Red Rock and Treasure Island. Again, helping with the choice to go clockwise.

Start and first leg to Blackhaller.
I have often had mediocre starts on the Three Bridge. For I think I typically stay too far way beforehand, fearing the heavy penalty for coming within 50 yards of the line before our warning. Not getting a good read on the line, and also with all the boats around, can result in choppy wind. We did manage to start with clean air, though be it a little bit late. I did have the thought (after starting of course) that a port start closer in to the shore looked like it would have been quite favored. And, seem to remember some of the more experienced Merit 25 guys making good on this in previous years. Steve and I had some trouble getting into the groove here on our first leg. We quickly fell back from Val and Randall. Val doing very well in the shifty / gusty conditions with his blade (first J24 to the mark). Randall and Jasper were a bit more composed than us, sailing open and staying on their feet. Also, we had a bit of trouble with a starboard boat coming in on the layline at Blackhaller (starboard rounding), and tacking at the mark. Had to go head to wind to avoid them, and give them room to round. This pushed us back a bit more.

To Red Rock via. Raccoon Straights.
We did seem to pick up our pace here. And, had an excellent close reach to the eastern edge of Richardson Bay and the mouth of Raccoon Straights. We unfortunately met the doldrums here. Steve and I did seem to stay alive with some forward progress though. Keeping as muh leeward weight as possible, and focusing on trim. I think we raised the spinnaker poll two or three times, but never launched the spinnaker. The very light zephyrs seemed to be fighting against each other. We would catch a little bit of wind from behind, and then it would quickly come around (or feel like it came around) from the Tiburon shore and we would be on a tight reach / close haul. This went through several cycles, getting some way on the boats around us, then falling back. Passing over the tide line, and approaching Keil Cove we started to converge with some of the later starting boats. But, we could also see that there was a decent amout of wind around Bluff Point. We got over taken by quite a few boats, but seemed to come into our own on the close reach (nearly close hauled) drive to Red Rock. We probably could have fought harder for some height on the other boats. But, found our lane and groove, holding off many others to the Red Rock. We were set up for a starboard rounding starboard launch. In hindsight I think it would have been better to gybe first then launch (out of the port side), or simply launch earlier. As it was we lost a fair amount of height, and many other boats were able to round the Red Rock much closer, and come out higher for the tight run down to Treasure Island.

To and around Treasure Island / Yerba Buena Island.
Despite coming out of the rounding low. We survived and worked our way back up. Not getting too close to Angel Island, but staying higher than many other boats. Once in the main slot, there was a lot of opportunity to surf, and we continued to stay higher than other boats. Approaching Treasure Island we ended up exposed to more current here, but our thought was to stay high and keep the chute working for us as long as possible. Steve executed a great sail change to the blade, right after rounding Red Rock and gybing. We would be a lot slower with the blade. This worked out fairly well for us, holding the kite a bit longer than many other boats. But, we ran into a little trouble finding a good spot to turn down and douse, with the construction barge anchors getting in our way. But, not too much of a hit here, one Moore 24 getting ahead of us. Unfortunately, made an error getting around Yerba Buena though. Sailing too close to the shadow of the island, actually sailed backwards a short distance. This allowed quite a few boats to get around us. A little disappointed, but steeled up for the final leg. For could see that it was really blowing once around, and wanted to push hard for the final stretch.

Yerba Buena to finish.
We sailed out and the ebb carried us between towers two and three. We tacked shortly after tower two and sailed out right about in the middle of the channel. It looked like several other boats went further in closer to the City Front. My only thought was to minimize tacks and again lined up in the middle of the channel. We did quite well on the boats outside of us, but of course it dawned on me a little late that the boats closer the the City Front and inside of us were doing better still. Before our tack though, the main halyard slipped, which is perhaps an indication of how hard the wind was blowing at this point. Up to twenty knots maybe more in the gusts. And, the strong ebb tide had really started to stack up the bay chop. I think we sailed very well here, keeping on our feet by feather in the gusts and working over the big waves. But, it is pretty obvious to me now that it was advantaged to get closer to the City Front. And, we would have not likely need to tack anyway, or maybe only once. So lost a few more place here as well. But, most of these observations are with the perpective of looking at the results after the race. At the time in the wind and the chop, was mostly just focusing on keeping the boat going and no longer thinking too strategically / tactically.

A great race all and all, and Steve and I were feeling really good about our performance. We listened intently to the VHF for finishing sail numbers, but never heard any of the other J24s. And, so were really wondering where we all ended up. Having split so early in the race we had lost track of everyone, and didn’t really know if we had finished ahead or behind. Again, feel good about our race, but can also think of lots of places where we could have pick up time. Or, being one of the slower classes, not loose places that is. Next year.

The RegattaPRO Winter One Design dates are posted on the calendar! Please sign up if you haven’t:

http://www.regattapro.com/regattas.html

http://regattalog.com/wod/2013

Racing is Saturdays only, two races per day, on Nov. 10th, Dec. 8th, Jan. 12th, and Feb. 9th. Looking forward to seeing folks out on the course!

The J/24 end of season banquet was a blast. Robin and Jasper were kind enough to volunteer their place and host an evening affair that they catered perfectly. Congratulations to all racers, but especially Rail to Rail, Shut Up and Drive, and Downtown Uproar for putting up great showings for the year!

(write-up by Randall Rasicot of Flight)

The RYC Great Pumpkin Regatta lived up to its reputation again this year. For the buoy racing Saturday, 148 boats registered in 14 One Design classes and 8 PHRF divisions on 3 courses. For Sunday’ s traditional pursuit race either way around Angel Island and Alcatraz, 173 boats signed up. Thinking I should get the boat in ahead of the crowd, I went to the club and put Flight in the water Friday Afternoon. It was already too late, boats were rafted up all over the harbor and the confusion was rampant.

Returning in the morning we found Darren had brought Downtown Uproar over from TI during the evening and rafted up next to us. There was no hurry to get out, as there was not much sign of wind with postponement certain. For the first time this season we needed the motor to leave the dock, a sign of conditions to come for the weekend. The good sign was that the motor actually started after months of neglect.

We headed of out to get some practice on the Southhampton course and made our first incorrect assumption of the regatta, heading toward a committee boat on station at Southhampton. When we got there we found that the “committee boat” was actually a fishing boat. Then we noticed Downtown and half the fleet had figured out that the Southhampton course was actually a couple miles east of Southhampton. Shut Up and Drive and Woof were out as well and soon were all in the same part of the Bay.

The Race Committee planned a course with the start line below the leeward mark so there was no chance of start line restriction confusion from these SIs (unlike Sarcoma Cup race two where Woof was the only one to get it right…).

The first race eventually started in light winds. Downtown and Shut Up gained an early lead. By the final leg the wind died off further and soon there was enough of a shift that we set the kite to get to the upwind finish line above the upwind mark. There was there a delay as we all made the long commute back to the start in light wind and ebb.

The wind came back in race two for very unusual SF Bay conditions. Moderate winds, shorts, tee shirts… This must be how it is to sail in other places, just way too pleasant to be SF Bay sailing in J24s. The highlight of the race for us was the downwind leg playing with Woof the whole way. First we were ahead, with Woof right on our wind. We tried to push them up, but they outsmarted us and got ahead. Realizing two could play that game, we pulled around their stern and did the same, getting back ahead at the leeward mark. Meanwhile, Downtown and Shut Up were sailing great in a battle for first and second.

For the last race, we returned to more normal afternoon Bay wind into the low twenties and the crews were back in their normal element. After a start where we found ourselves with the genoa wrapped on the forestay, port tacking the committee boat, we made up for it with a less than ideal set at the upwind mark. As a result, we were delayed making the early jibe the rest of the fleet had made ahead of us. As long as we were already there and behind, we decided to take a flyer and stay right. To our surprise it actually worked and we found ourselves overlapped with Shut up at the leeward mark.

Results of the day where the same in all three races, Downtown Uproar first, Shut Up and Drive second, Flight third and Woof fourth. This masked how close it actually was and the conditions made for great day for racing.

Evening festivities moved between the Dead Man’s Party at the club to Deception rafted up in the harbor and back. In addition to finding the usual company of Jasper, Peter and Steve on Deception, we found Mike Arrajj from TMC was there as well. We all attempted to ignore that Mike was dressed as a Detroit Tiger. The great news is that Mike has bought a 50 footer and he is moving aboard. Plans are already being made for overnight fleet raft-ups with our new mother ship next season.

Sunday lived up to its prediction of even less wind than Saturday. This left plenty of time for the pre-start floating party that is Great Pumpkin. One boat had a coffin mounted on deck and RYC had hired a Jamaican band on board Sugaree which lead a conga line of boats through the fleet as we drifted about. Much time was spent working the trivia quiz, debating rig settings and deciding if the Pumpkin Beer really compares with Sierra Nevada. The first bottle is not a good test, needs several samples.

Luther showed up with a friend to do the race double handed on Little Wing. It certainly did not appear to be a day where full crew weight would be an advantage. It was not until after 1:00 that the fog advanced in from the gate to create pressure around Alcatraz. Given the general confusion on the radio about how to recalculate the start times after postponement, the RC decided to wait until the 2:00 to start us. Their theory being that we would be more capable of adding hours to our individual start times, instead of doing the complex math involved with adding minutes. The bad news was that no time would be added to the DNF time of 5:00 (RC did not want to inconvenience those setting up for the awards or chance the unthinkable potential of doing awards in the dark). We now had 3 hours to completethe race instead of 5 with variable wind and a 4 knot ebb as the afternoon proceeded. Several boats did the math and retired once this was announced. They probably just wanted to get back in time to see if the Giants would sweep the Series.

General wisdom was to go counter clockwise around Angel and Alcatraz to get through Raccoon Straights in the early ebb instead of fighting strong ebb there at the end of the race. The problem with that strategy was that there was still no wind in the straights when we finally started at 2:00. Seeing this, we decided to go clockwise, as did Little Wing, counting on the wind filling in in the straights by the time we got there. Both Shut Up and Downtown stuck to the original strategy hoping it would fill in there sooner.

We had a great start on the port side of the line and took a hitch up early to get into the main current, which initially worked well. We soon realized though, that Luther’s wisdom of just staying on Starboard was paying off, as the current kept lifting Little Wing up to meet us as we cracked off further and further to make the leeward side of Alcatraz. They got ahead as we rounded the island, but remembering how Shut Up had gotten back around us there during Octoberfest, we tacked early straight towards Alcatraz and the current carried us around and now we were the ones getting better advantage from the current lift on the ride to Angel Island. We were doing well at that point being the fourth boat to round Alcatraz. We kept looking to see boats coming the other way out of Raccoon Straights, but none were to be seen. Gordie Nash came past in his highly modified Santana as we were rounding Angel Island and we followed him to the left side of the straights into better current relief. We even picked up two pumpkins dropped in front of us by the RC as we flew down the straights with plenty of pressure in the kite. This was going really well, it was looking like a great overall finish was in the cards.

In the back of our minds though, we were really starting to wonder what had happened to Downtown and Shut Up. Later we learned that after painful progress most of the way up the Straights in minimal wind, Val had one of those sailing nightmares. Shut Up was sucked towards the rocks on the side of Angel Island by the current with no wind whatsoever. He tried to set the anchor, but could get no purchase at all on the steep rocks that drop straight down into one of the deepest parts of the Bay. Giving up, he mounted the engine but it wouldn’t start, finally deciding to call for help, he grabbed the radio and discovered it had given up the ghost. As Val and crew were thinking the next step was to get off the boat and onto the rocks, they looked up to see that Darren was heading towards them under engine. Downtown was able to pull them away with just a few minor scrapes on the newly re-finished hull. They both retired from the race and Val is in the market for a more reliable engine, bigger anchor, new radio, paddles…

As we left the Straights and headed to the rounding mark off the Richmond breakwater, we saw Gordie and a few other boats heading way left instead of the direct course to the mark. After the usual extended discussion with the other 4 tacticians on board the decision was made to sail the shorter course. In hindsight, we will follow Gordie in the future. The wind soon started dying and the boats to our left always had more wind than those to the right. The closer to the mark we got the worse it became and the more boats came in and parked with us.

I finally remembered Luther’s advice from 3 Bridge Fiasco when we were similarly parked under the Bay Bridge together. Luther pointed out that a J24 will make progress in no wind if you just sheet in and point it where you want to go. Sure enough, as I was remembering this, I looked to my left and there was Luther going past us in Little Wing, sails sheeted in pointed at the rounding mark. From there we stayed within a few boat lengths of Little Wing as we rounded the mark, and could see the finish a few hundred yards ahead when the clock struck 5:00.

Final result was that only 29 boats out of 173 entries were able to finish. Of course, as we motored back into the harbor the breeze filled back in. Thirty minutes more and I am sure the majority of the fleet would have finished. The J24 fleet is hoping Darren is filing for redress so at least one J24 will be among the finishers.

So ended the Fleet 17 2012 season and my first year at the helm. It’s been a great year with great support from the fleet and we are looking forward to Saturday’s Fleet Banqueteque at Jasper and Robin’s. Then, on to midwinters and winter boat projects to get ready for 2013.

Season standings are updated again. WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!~

The crew of 3 Big Dogs provided this weekend recap for the fleet blog. Thanks to them for the terrific racing and for the thoughtful summary!

“Great racing on the Berkeley circle this past weekend. The Western District world qualifying regatta hosted by the Berkeley Yacht Club included good representation by both the So Cal and Nor Cal fleets with participation from perennial Dana Point, Santa Barbara, and Ventura road warriors mixed with local champ Mike Whitfield and the competitive Nor Cal fleet. As has become the norm for these regattas, the hospitality and club support were superb and we were able to hang out with our great friends Mike and LuLu Whitfield and their TMC crew. LuLu’s award winning Paella was undoubtedly the social highlight for the weekend.

A total of seven races were competed. The course was set a quarter of mile north of the Marina entrance and the committee ran relatively short (1/2 mile leg) two lap courses. One fun added twist moved the finish line of the final race on each day to the yacht club observation deck. The unusually cool conditions led to relatively light air racing on Saturday. With the first two races competed in 10 – 12 knots of breeze, with the breeze finally building to the 12 -15 knot range in the final couple of races. The 10 boat fleet allowed for a match race atmosphere with the top three boats continually trading spots. The light air also made for less stable wind angle with multiple 10 -15 degree oscillations on each weather leg. The shorter courses and wind shifts put a premium on boat handling and tactical sailing with the lead boats trading multiple leads throughout the weekend.

As we normally sail in light air, we were hoping for the opportunity to test our boat performance in some top end genoa or blade conditions and Sunday cooperated with breezes building to the 14 – 16 knot range for the final two races. As we were 10 – 15 lbs light, we set up our rig to be one above the base setting (tuning for 16 -19 knots). Our reasoning was we did not want excessive headstay sag because we expected to be over powered. We maxed the halyard tension and moved the genoa blocks back one tick on the track. We found a good gear by balancing backstay, vang and traveler to give the right sail twist and power in the short step chop of the Berkeley circle. The Quantum Technora head sail we were testing really seemed to have pace when we matched up with the North 3DL sail (TMC racing) and the latest Ullman foil (Jaded). However, at the top of most weather legs the leader and the other top boats were usually within a few boat lengths and the top position was held by the boat with the best start, lane and wind shift management. With the downwind legs mostly fetches, the passing opportunities occurred on the weather legs. Our goal, if we were behind was to stay close on the downwind legs and beat the lead boat to the next shift on the upwind legs. If we were leading, we soft covered and tried to run our competition out to laylines if possible. In these situations we would sail through the shifts if the behind boats did not tack to the lifted board.

We entered Sunday tied with TMC and a point behind the Deke Klatt in Jaded. On the first race we had a clean committee boat start and tack immediately as the wind was clocking to the left phase. Jaded started mid-line and tacked with us, but we got bow out and were in control. TMC started pin end and looked great as the wind shifted into the left phase. When the wind shifted back right we tacked and consolidated and were able to regain the lead. We round the weather mark first and were able to control the race for first with TMC and Jaded finishing within feet for second and third.

We were now a point ahead of both TMC and Jaded with Jaded holding the tie breaker with two first place finishes from Saturday. The next race Jaded won the pin, with us hot on their tail and TMC on our weather quarter. Jaded was able to leg out and TMC was holding a lane and instead of letting TMC run us out to the layline we made and quick tack to port and ducked TMC. They let us go, probably reasoning that they were ahead of Jaded. Jaded tacked slightly short of port layline and were slightly ahead of TMC. TMC tacked short of Jaded. We had a good leward position on both boats with significant leveraged to the right. In this moment we had enough race track and gage on TMC to test our point mode. TMC was forced to pinch to protect their bow and Jaded rolled into a controlling position. We closed the gap and were able to tack and cross TMC. Jaded rounded first and held on for the first with us second and TMC third. For the final race we were tied with Jaded, but they held the tie breaker. It was your classic winner take all final race.

The wind had now boosted to 14 – 16 knots and we cranked the rig to the 16 -19 knot setting anticipating the wind to increase further. The start line was slightly pin favored and we did some circles with Jaded at about the 1:30 mark, but broke off the dance t 40 seconds when two starboard boats were sweeping down the line, Jaded bore off to lead these boats down the line, but was early to the pin and had to circle the mark, we had a conservation start mid line and were in control. Jaded was buried, ducking starboard boats as was TMC who also got caught at the port end. Once they cleared, we had a significant lead on both. We tacked to cover and they both tacked back. We soft covered and they both tacked back, hoping for a shift and a passing opportunity. We were able to round the top mark first and held our spot to finish first. We finished with 13 points, Jaded 14 points and TMC 16 points. Great
racing overall and fun to spar with our So Cal and Nor Cal buddies.

Next stop Rochester……”

The Western Regionals are bringing out the competitive spirit in the Bay Area. Here is the “before” picture of the newest participant.

Both Amancio Souza and Alex Schultink are Graduate Students at Berkeley and we are working on Plant Biology focused on Bio Fuel applications. This picture was taken in February. Since then they have been slowly bringing it back to shape.

They named the boat Fly by Night after a song of the band Rush. The boat is currently in The Berkeley Marina. The main goal is to enjoy sailing in the bay and get involved with some racing. Alex won’t be able to make the regionals this year but they will hopefully race in some of the other fleet events together in 2012.

Well it’s done. Aeolus and Neptune have been bribed with prayers, champagne and some whiskey for good measure. Enough to allow the renaming of On Belay to Flight. Randall R. Rasicot (R3) is the skipper and he has a copacetic crew lined up to keep us on our toes. Welcome Randall. Don, don’t be a stranger.

Allright. We have committed to the following schedule for 2012. There are of course many regattas to choose from during the year, but we trust that you will commit boats and crew to one weekend per month for our beloved class:
March 17/18: StFYC Spring Keel
April 21/22: J-Fest
May 5/6: YRA Vallejo
May 19/20: SFYC Elite Keel
June 23: Summer Sailstice
July 28/29: YRA 2nd Half Opener
August 4/5: Western Regionals and TMC District 20 Championships. Registration now open at www. westernregionals.com
August 25/26: BYC Sarcoma Cup
Oct. 13th: BYC Oktoberfest
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.