By that night it was clearly time to go racing. And I made the mistake of telling the One-Time crew that we we're racing for a bottle of Patron. Well, they did a "horizon job" on everybody and then shared the loot at our dinner that night. Thanks to LBYC for the buffet dinner outside in about 75 degree weather. By the skipper's meeting, Saturday morning, it was clear it was going to be a busy day. We approached the starting line with 9 boats and a pretty solid 12+ knots of breeze. For the first time that I can remember, I started a race with a No. 2 genoa and never took it down. And the breeze just built from there (15-18 with gusts of 25). Then Sunday was more of the same. By the end of the weekend there were 4 "man overboard" calls and too many broken parts to list. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. It was clearly the biggest, most consistent winds of any 2 day regatta in recent memory. I know it doesn't sound like San Francisco but, these are nearly 40 year old boats… it does make it thrilling. Cheap Date sailed a fantastic Saturday and it became even more fantastic when the Fleet learned that they had broken their gooseneck and lashed it to the mast for the 2nd and 3rd races and won one of those. One Time was very strong and Discovery was in the hunt with a couple of 2nds along with Jane's and Nemesis. On Sunday, for race 5, the race committee gave us a long "3 lapper" that was both good (we rarely get them) and bad (my boat couldn't make it). One-Time seemed to have the whole thing locked up. Then, the unimaginable happened. At the windward mark of the 1st leg, One-Time became tangled in a slew of boats, crash tacked and lost a man overboard and snapped a strand of the side-stay. Discovery was leading with Cheap Date close in tow and for one brief moment, with One-Time in 7th, the National Trophy was up for grabs. I knew Art and Scott Melendres, and their seasoned crew wouldn't stay back there for long, but, hey, I can dream can't I? That was until the 2nd windward mark where Discovery sky'ed both halyards and lost the ability to fly a headsail. We we're still sailing 6 knots dead at the leeward mark on the main and a genoa raised on the topping lift but, damn that race committee, we had one more lap to go. Cheap Date ended up winning the last race and One-Time came all the way back to 2nd place to hold on to the title.
Final Standings:
| Art/Scott Melendres | One Time | -LBYC | 8 | |
| John McBrearty | -Cheap Date | - LBYC | 11 | 2 |
| Warnock/Willingham | Discovery | HHYC | 19 | 3 |
| Steve/Jane Horst | Jane's Addiction | DRYC | 20 | 4 |
| Bob Daniel | - Nemesis | ABYC | 26 | 5 |
| Don Albrecht | -- Valkyrie | SSYC | 31 | 6 |
| Landeau/Carver | Gemma | ABYC | 33 | 7 |
| Donald Reiman | Rhyme N Reason | ABYC | 35 | 8 |
| Ted Zelmer | Caliban | SBYC | 45 | 9 |
See you on the water. _________________________________________ Brad Willingham