West Coast Sailing Grand Prix

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17 radials, 6 races 19 standards, 5 races

Radials sailed on the Cityfront. Standards sailed on the north course, starting north-west of Alcatraz.

Top sailors in the radial fleet were Will Dana, Lindsey Baab, Lawson Willard, Will Cefali. Top sailors in the standard fleet were Peter Shope, Tracy Usher, Christine Neville, Emilio Castelli.

The NWS and WeatherFlow model Saturday wind forecasts for Fall Dinghy were way off. The common expectation for Fall Dinghy is there will be a fair amount of time postponed on shore due to light air. One recent year there was only one race. This time the first warning signal was about 2 hours late. Most people left the dock relatively lightly dressed. The wind started picking up by the time we got to the start line. On the north course, the wind ended up touching black diamond level of difficulty. It was not the anticipated green circle level of challenge. Being lightly dressed, most people got cold.

On Sunday, the breeze was up from the get go and had been blowing upper teens all night at Pt Blunt. The breeze got stronger as they day progressed. On the north course, conditions were well into black diamond conditions. The RC on the north course had a problem getting one of the marks to hold, so the first warning was delayed 35 mins. Everyone had dressed for warmth, but got cold anyway waiting.

On the north course, there were good waves to ride downwind all the time. That's a payoff for getting cold & hiking hard. On Sunday both Gt. Pumpkin pursuit race fleets converged near the standard start line while we were in sequence, really chopping up the water and making it challenging. A Laser capsized and big boats had to take evasive maneuvers. The sailor righting his boat was concerned about getting hit, as it didn't appear that all the big boats were keeping a good watch. On the Cityfront course, a 29er pitch-poled and a sailor fell through the main, punching a hole and forcing them to retire.

Santa Cruz Laser sailor Evan Diola was crewing on a 5o5 and won a prize. Drake Jensen was crewing on a 29er and also won a prize.

Fall Dinghy results: http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php...

Fall Dinghy pics: http://www.printroom.com/pro/crayivp

A summary of wind readings for Saturday and Sunday: http://skysail.com/sailing/d24/2013-fall-dinghy.html