Miguel Ferreira, Lucas Pierce and Matthew Pierce represented Santa Barbara Yacht Club at the third of four regattas that make up the annual "Harken Series". The two-day affair was hosted by San Francisco Yacht Club in Tiburon, but sailing was a 45-minute tow through Racoon Straits, past Angel Island, across the shipping channel and over to Southampton Shoal, just south of Pt. Richmond.

Thanks to the generosity of California Yacht Club, the Santa Barbara sailors sailed with the CalYC team and were coached by North Sails' Brian Bissell for the event.

Both days were painfully light air as the sailors rarely found themselves up on the rail. Miguel had a great first day, but later discovered he was facing protests in two of the day's four races. He withdrew from one of the races facing allegations of sculling on the starting line and prevailed in the other protest, a windward-leeward dispute. Discarding the RAF ("retired after finishing"), Miguel remained well-positioned for the podium.

Sunday morning could not have been more beautiful. Clear skies and warm temperatures provided picture postcard views of Angel Island and the San Francisco skyline-but no wind. After a long tow out to the course and an even longer delay anchored in the current waiting for wind, Waypoint Pizza arrived in their Protector to save the day. By the time the pizza had been distributed and enjoyed, there was just enough wind to counter the affect of the current and go racing.

Despite struggling a bit in Saturday's light air and current, Lucas Pierce came back strong on Sunday, particularly on the second beat of each race, carding a 4-11 respectively and moving him well up the standings and into 15th place overall out of 45 boats and 7th in age group out of 19 Blue Fleeters (ages 11-12).

After a third-place finish in Sunday's first race, Miguel looked destined for a top-three finish in the regatta. Having thrown out a RAF on Saturday however, left no room for error. It wasn't to be. Light air, current and an unkind shift resulted in a 26th in the last race which he was unable to discard. Despite eating the 26th, Miguel still finished fourth overall and second in Blue Fleet.

Matthew Pierce was disappointed with his result, finishing in 30th place out of 45 boats-that is, until the prize giving when he was awarded his trophy for third place in White Fleet (10 and under)!

Results

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