What a fun regatta!! But it didn’t start out that way this year. When sailors showed up Friday afternoon for a little afternoon sail it was cold and rainy. ‘Hotel room sailing’ was quickly decided upon.
As the first ‘official’ Hobie regatta of the season, it was fun seeing good friends again. There was lots of chatter on the beach and catching up as we waited for the breeze to fill in. Finally it did and it was boats off the beach.
Winds were light-to-moderate with large shifts and enough big puffs to keep everyone honest (and upright!). The highlight of the entire weekend, including Saturday — was watching the 3 youth teams battle in the H-16 fleet. JJ Hoag and Jessie Markovich were by far the most entertaining. You could hear them giggling and laughing all the way around the course. And when they won a race — which they did on multiple occasions — the high 5’s and cheering were unstoppable.
While the two girls were trying to put a tight cover on John Ped and Alex LeBlond, they let Will Nelson and Josh Markovich head to the other side of the course. And on a couple of those races the latter two sailed themselves into victory circle. That proved to be just enough as Will/Josh eeked past the two tied teams by one point to steal the victory.
In the 18 class a very strong showing of 12 boats hit the line. Peter & Laura showed great upwind speed, but it was Paul & Vanessa who showed everyone how to sail downwind. But a lousy second race put Gillian in the driver’s seat, just 2 points back of Peter/Laura after Saturday’s racing.
The dinner Saturday night was particularly cool in that many of the pu-pus looked like sailboats! There was lots of catching up to do, and later that night a gang of 8-9 teenage sailing thugs were seen roaming the streets of the resort pounding down a 1/2 gallon of ice cream! Dangerous stuff.
Sunday started out looking promising. But the wind never filled until very late in the afternoon. PRO Steve Brunson set a short course and rattled off 4 very short races. The races were quite refreshing because it was like short-track racing, with a premium on crew work. In the end the Von Stubbe’s were able to overhaul Gillian and grab second place.
Other notables were Will and ____. New sailors from Vancouver borrowing an older boat. They got everyone’s attention right off the bat with a 2nd place in the first race. Sandbaggers!
Hobie Division 4 