Howdy Popabob.

I thought I’d share my recent race here in Santa Cruz.

This Autumn, I left the team I have been racing with this last year and volunteered to work with the regatta organizers, helping them with timing, signaling and recording. A few weeks ago I got connected with a Schock Santana 22 and have been taking Kira and other new sailors out on it to causally sail on Friday evenings as we enjoy the sunset and look out for whales.

This last weekend, the owner let me know he wasn’t able to race his boat, but that I could race if was interested. The Santana 22 fleet is not as large as the fleet I was sailing in with the Santa Cruz 27, but is constant and has some very seasoned and competitive boats.  So Saturday I put it in the water and rigged it up. This was my first time at the helm for a regatta and the first time sailing with my last minute crew (fortunately he’s a 20-something year veteran of the class, so he knew plainly well, what he was doing)

Our first race we were still working out the kinks of sailing together and placed third only a few seconds after the leader, but after a short pre-start pow-wow and a better idea of the wind and competition, we came across the line the second time with aptitude. We led the pack around the course for a comfortable first place finish. My official first keel-boat sailing career first place finish at the helm. Huzzah!

More About The Race @ SCYC.org