What a great time in Santa Cruz this weekend. Great conditions, close racing, great event - couldn't ask for more.
Day 1
With a variety of forecasts predicting everything from light to blasting breeze, we arrived on the course with a westerly already blowing fairly early, for Santa Cruz. To us, that meant that this wasn't the typical SC seabreeze, so we needed to approach differently. There were clearly heavy winds offshore, but clearly lighter or more variable winds closer in. The big choice was which headsail. Clearly, we needed bigger for the holes, but #3 was good for puffs. We chose #3 and decided to play the left side of the course to avoid the holely conditions on the inshore side. With the pin being super favored, starting near the pin was safe, as we knew the majority of the fleet would be forced to tack to port early. This was the case throughout the weekend, except for the final Sunday race. We started, tacked quickly to the middle and hitched out to the left according to our game plan. We led at the first mark, great set, and promptly realized we forgot the offset mark - race over, we went back and finished last.
The second race was a long distance race to Natural Bridges mark, about 3 miles upwind. We again stuck with the #3, though Pegasus and several others opted for the #2. Again, we played shifted offshore to stay in the pressure and found that the typical favored shoreline on the right wasn't as magical as it usually is. With good pace, we found ourselves trailing Pegasus up the coast. The breeze steadily built as we approached NB mark, to a steady 22-25. Pegasus held on to round first, and we both set for a planing angle on starboard and headed offshore. Pegasus gybed first and we carried on offshore and gybed outside of them. We were loving the high and fast angle, so we wanted to be able to continue that as long as possible, knowing the the breeze would decline 2/3 of the way to the finish. Pegasus seemed to transition to running angle inshore earlier than we needed to, and we were able to just cross them as the gybed back out toward our line. We transitioned to a running angle and managed to take the win.
The third race, we stuck with the #3, pin start and played the middle, but the breeze dropped off a little, and the right side shift seemed to work better. We found ourselves in traffic and rounded 3-4th. We lost a bit of ground to Paramour and Gruntled who rounded inside putting us in 5th. RC had adjusted the finish line from the start, so it wasn't entirely starboard end favored and a bit difficult to determine where to finish. It was a scramble and we ended up at the pin finishing overlapped with Pegasus and Safety Third, with other boats finishing at the boat end, super close. We hung onto 5th - phew!
Day 2
Conditions looked much more typical with lighter SW winds in the morning, and westerly seabreeze building in a more typical way. We again chose to put up the #3 despite it being perhaps better to be on the #2. However, we'd been able to get very comfortable on Saturday, with changing gears on our #3. Being able to point better and have easier boathandling with the #3, while sacrificing only a little pace seemed a worthy trade-off for us. Race 4 - We got off the line well at the pin again, but Pegasus was clearly faster on their #2. We tried to lee bow, but they eventually rolled us, and we were on a tight layline. We hitched out which let Safety Third slide into 2nd for the rounding. We managed to get them back on the run to round the bottom mark in 2nd, and with the final beat a bit skewed and the boat end of the finish very favored, there wasn't much to do on the final beat. Race 6 - Similar story - but we shifted our strategy to get to port off the line more quickly and work the right side of the beat. We'd been nervous, wanting to change to the #2, but there just wasn't enough time. So, we made some adjustments to our set-up, powering up a bit, and found we had great speed up the beat managing through the lighter spots better than before. We led at the top by enough to sail the run quite freely and take the bullet. Race 6 - Here the start line was more square than previously, but we still started near the pin. We didn't get off the line very well and were pushed to the left more than we'd have liked. However, this seemed to be ok, and while we were struggling in the 5-8 place range, we focused on staying conservative and avoiding errors, since the course was longer with an extra lap. We rounding about 7th and maintained that during the run, but pulled up to a pack of 3 boats. Knowing that we'd likely hope to carry on port toward the right in the rounding, we dropped the kite early and focused on a good rounding right behind Watts Moore. We hung in our lane quite well, but Paramour, Pegasus and Moortician were going too quickly to catch. Typical SC seabreeze dictated hitting the right corner, which we all did. Despite trying to lee bow Mooretician, they rolled us. But the 4 of us extended enough to have a bit of an uneventful run, despite Paramour and Pegasus appearing to have a great battle at the front. Short beat to finish 4th.
We were totally unsure of the point standings, but knew we had a good day and were in the hunt. With such close racing, everyone in the top 5 was up and down throughout the day. With no one dominating the day, we managed to grab the win by just 2 points, after dropping our shocker in race 1. Thanks to Ali Yuvali, Dylan Tran and especially the infamous Matt Lezin on the bow and tactics. They handled the boat fantastically, giving me every opportunity to focus on making Mooregasm go fast. See you all at Nationals and Ditch Run, sorry to have to miss the SFYC roadmasters but I'm sure it'll be great.
Stephen Bourdow
Mooregasm crew with bunny ears by second place Paramour
