Fall is here in San Diego! Temperatures in the mid-60’s, plenty of sun, but WEIRD winds. Plenty of breeze from (mostly) the west, but monster shifts and a few cavernous holes made for VERY tough sailing conditions. Gerry Wold was our Race Director Du Jour for both the IOM’s and the DF95’s. Gerry chose a combination of standard Medium and Long courses for both classes. Tacks and downwind lines were chosen at great peril. Often, skippers found themselves becalmed as boats sailed past them on both sides within a mere few feet!
FABULOUS Autumn weather: Sunny and warm with light westerly breezes. Bob Williams ran the DF95 Fleet with Gil Jansky Scoring. The spotty and shifty winds created lots of passing lanes for skippers who were able to capitalize.
Bob Williams continued as RD for the IOM Fleet, this time assisted by Kerim Baran as Scorer. Despite the forecast for stronger breezes later in the day, the breezes actually slackened a bit by the time it was the IOM’s turn. However, after the 3rd Race break, the winds filled in and became more consistent. Racing was amazingly tight with many passing opportunities and lead changes in the shifts.
Perfect Conditions! Sunny with mild temperatures and good westerly winds greeted the IOM Fleet for our annual IOM Fun Regatta!Great Sailing, Hot Dogs and Prizes! The conventional scores were:
…however, Prizes were determined by the final digit of a Skipper’s score, matched with a pre-determined number contained in a hermetically sealed envelope kept in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s porch….
Winner of the Grand Prize RaceBird Electric RC Boat was Dennis Rogers (who was closest to 5 without going over), while Tom Warren and Gil Jansky each won embroidered hats for being closest to 9 and 2 respectively).
Bring your IOM out this Saturday for our 2024 IOM Fun Regatta! The fun starts at 12:00 Sharp, so don’t miss it!
PS: One lucky Skipper will walk away with a Special Prototype of the soon-to-be-released Joysway RaceBird electric hydrofoil racer! (Courtesy of Chuck LeMahieu of Dragon Sailing North America.) This is a 1/14th scale radio-controlled version of the full-sized electric foiling racers now competing in the International E1 Series with Teams headed by Tom Brady, Will Smith, Rafa Nadal, et al.
Clouds and Southerly winds greeted the DF95 Fleet as Point races began. Lots of shifts, holes and lead-changes were the order of the day as RD Jason Brooks chose courses to fit the conditions.
The winds picked up a bit, filled in and moved more westerly by the time the IOM‘s took to the pond. Racing was extremely tight as the fleet remained bunched throughout most of the heats. There were many lead changes; many occurring on the final leg!
Thanks to Bob Williams who RD’d the IOM Fleet and Fred Rocha who RD’d the DF95’s! Also, a special Welcome Back to Paul Hart who proves you can’t keep a good Skipper down!
Beautiful, sunny weather with wonky winds! The Dragonflite95 Fleet began in moderate but shifty Southwest winds. Due to the direction, Starboard rounding courses were selected by RD Tom Warren. Though the winds filled a bit over time and veered slightly more westerly, there were some big holes and massive shifts. There were many lead changes, but lawyers took the top two spots with Scotty Harris carrying the day by winning half the races:
Next it was the IOM’s turn and strengthening westerly winds allowed a return to our traditional Port Roundings. RD Chris Staiger ran a combination of Medium and Long courses. Dennis Rogers dominated the fleet of eleven IOM’s; missing a perfect score of “6”‘ by a single point. Results follow:
Seven IOM skippers participated today in our October IOM Fun Regatta. Ken Wild was our volunteer Race Director for a full day on the water. Thank you Ken for hanging in there for a total of 14 races.. I know that wasn’t in the contract!
IOM skippers sailed a course suggested by Steve Ross, inspired by the recent European IOM Championships. The weather mark was an outside -to inside gate. We did two upwind and two downwind legs and omitted our traditional offset reach in the middle. I think it worked fairly good.. A little more separation between the marks would make it even better.
Steve Ross recorded some drone footage of the first few races but they still live on a tiny little SD card.. once I track down my reader we will be in business!
Four Argonaut IOM Sailors traveled to Foster City June 10 & 11 for the 2023 IOM Regionals – Dennis Rogers, Jess Atkinson, Jason Brooks and Tom Warren. There were just 13 entries but a highly competitive field leaving Jason and I feeling at least this was a gaining confidence event. I was desperate for “B Rig” experience as I was told it can blow stink at the lake. I was also warned of Kelley fish and weed wrapping around our IOM appendages!
As it turned out, weed and jelly fish were the least of our concerns as Jason and I observed the rock stars show up on Saturday morning. These are the guys our parents warned us about.
George Pedrick decided to forego the competition and became PRO as Freddy could not attend. George moved us south of the Rec Center for more favorable course, and we all ran A Rigs the first day. But the winds did not cooperate early as George was able to get off several races before postponements and resetting the courses became the rule of the day. With a 180 wind shift, the first critical races required us to start from right to left and dyslexic vision hampered the rookies. Finding our speed was also difficult and we made major adjustments between the many races thus far. With another 180 windshift and wind building to upper limits of A Rig, Jason took the bait and was the only sailor to mount the B Rig. Unfortunately, he could not overcome the lulls. Saturday’s end results placed Dennis and Jess in the upper echelon with Gary Boel and Mark Gollison, and Jason and I scoring in the Top 20!
Sunday morning brought more challenges to George Pedrick as the City of Foster City booked two events…the Bay Area Dragon boat regatta took our Saturday race course away, and we had to push the course North of the Pagoda and into a short course configuration. And alas the wind gods came to play and pushed us all into B Rigs! “This ought to be interesting!” Lots of action! Be awake!
I quickly found I had boat speed up and down the course- Kantun K2 conditions.the boat from Croatia was flying! Planing, diving, and a hell of a lotta fun! I started moving up in the order, but also found close quarter port and starboards required situational awareness. Several times I sailed passed outside the finish line’s smaller balls, and had to circle back, costing me valuable positions. When George suggested we target completing 32 races total, I felt my last chances of improvement. Alas! I steal a second place, then a fourth, and finally I got the start of my dreams, and fought hard for another 2nd place…but dang! I nailed the final tack and WON my first race! I did a Fernando Tatis 3rd Base Shuffle and got Congrats from all! So that’s how it’s done!
We all had an excellent time, and as the results don’t lie, Gary Boel and Mark Gollison went One Two. The entire fleet gained a great deal of attention from the locals and the Dragon participants, who constantly banged their drums all day long.
I was very impressed that every IOM player is willing to help each other out, are extremely friendly and enjoy the spirit of competition. There were no protests! Penalties served without bantering. And the sailing skills outrageous!
George Pedrick announced that The 2024 US Nationals will likely be held in Foster City.
SIGN ME UP! And the Argonauts need to come up and play with the Best of the Best. They won’t bite! We will all benefit in enjoying top- level competition with classy people.
PS Gary Boel paid me off with a cookie! And Jess…thank you for encouraging Jason and I to compete. You are a true warrior!
Tom Warren IOM #48
The Crew
Hello IOM Sailors,
The regatta turned out pretty good. We had a bit of a crises as the City scheduled two water events on the same day. We both needed the same water and the Dragon Boats got there first and had bigger boats. So we set up a bit shorter course to leeward of them which worked out fine. The shorter course also meant we got in 17 more races Sunday for a total of 32 good races for the weekend. The day started out in A rig and switched to B just after lunch.
Special Thanks to Dick Hunter, Sandy Winton, Chris Sullivan, Gary Boell and Gene Harris for their contributions to making the event a success.
I need to confirm with Freddy, but I am confident we will be hosting the 2024 National’s on one of the first two weekends in June of next year. Pencil it in and start making plans to attend. Be sure to bring a friend or two.
Thank you to all that attended. I enjoyed the time we spent together, and I look forward to the next time we cross paths.
