Friday practice was fantastic sailing off of Angel Island from 2pm to 6:30pm. We sailed in oscillating wind direction and speed varying from 12-18 knots, and a raging ebb tide making for some tricky waves. The quest for Friday's practice was to work on each sailor's predictive capabilities. Looking at local conditions and picking a side, then working that side versus the opposite side of the race-course. This meant playing shifts and current, but committing to one side or the middle early. Good fun, and a great work out for the weekend.

Saturday racing looked grim due to only 7-8 knots of wind and about 4 knots of flood current off Angel Island, so the course was moved into Richardson's Bay. Race one started off great, with Quinn and Dane both applying their practice from the previous day and committing to the right side early, even though the leeward end of the line was dramatically favored and the greater pressure was on the left early. Starting at the boat end saw both of them fall behind early, but the predicted right shift filled and working the following puffs and shifts for the next 10 minutes they both crawled to one, two at the top of the leg. Unfortunately, the left side faded so much the race committee decided to call the race. Bummer, as that was the only race that had a chance of finishing all day. At 2:30pm after much searching for wind the day's sailing was cancelled. Being the intrepid go getters we are, we decided to head out into the bay and find some breeze. We were rewarded with 18 knots of awesome sailing. So from 2:30pm to about 4:30pm we did a ton of drag racing up and downwind. Lesson learned, "surfing on huge ebb tide created waves is super fun. By the time we got back to the dock the rest of the fleet was packed away and we enjoyed an uncluttered dock to clean up.

The forecast Sunday looked even worse than Saturday so the RC decided to keep the fleet inside Belvedere Cove in hopes of getting as many small course races in as possible. Team West Side left the dock early and did some team racing drills for about 45 minutes before the rest of the fleet joined the scene. Once everyone arrived, we tested the course and discovered a pronounced advantage in the deep right corner. The drill was get to the right first and furthest. We didn't realize how pronounced until after the first leg of race one when Quinn ventured just a touch left and ended up near last at the top mark, then scrambling back to 34th by the finish. That sealed his fate for the regatta as no throw outs were going to be available in this shortened event. But Quinn was not alone with a tough result in a race, in fact, only two sailors were able to pull off getting to the right correctly and consistently and hence the tie for first between Will Cefali and Dane Wilson, with Will winning the tie breaker for first overall. Dane finished first in Red Fleet and 2nd Overall. Quinn salvaged reasonable finishes the rest of the way to end in 13th overall.

We did some recruiting for the Goblin regatta, although a tough sell being the same weekend as the Bay Area Championships, the lack of wind this weekend was a good motivator for some sailors to head south. We'll see. Team West Side may be in SB for the Goblin.

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