October 5, 2020

The first F18 regatta on the West Coast since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic was held at Richmond Yacht Club on the east side of San Francisco Bay on October 3-4. The regatta was managed mitigating Covid-19 risks by on-line registration, a Zoom competitor’s meeting, and socially distant physical competitor’s meeting with only one representative from each boat wearing masks. The competitors were good about wearing masks during boat rigging and interactions with other teams.

Six F18s were present at the event; four from the SF Bay area, one from Nevada and ourselves from San Diego. It was a good mixture of F18 brands with a Cirrus R2, three Nacra Evolutions, one Goodall C2 and a Phantom (the Zebra boat). I sailed the regatta with Steven Leuck also from Mission Bay Yacht Club who just graduated from the College of Charleston. Steven was a member of their National Champions sailing team and is an outstanding Laser sailor amongst other boats. This was Steven’s first regatta on a F18. We arrived in Richmond Thursday evening so that we would have Friday to rig and have a practice sail. We hit the water early afternoon in very light wind. We did manage to sail out towards the middle of the bay east of Angel Island to have a good light wind practice. We focused on getting a feel for the strong current’s affect on lay lines to marks and at a starting line. The wind forecast for the next two days was also light so we needed to be prepared.

On Saturday we set up the boat’s mast rake and other settings for light wind and headed towards the race course. As we were sailing out the wind was slowly building. By the time the first race was started the wind was already around 12 knots which made for nice trapezing conditions. In our first race we had good boat speed up wind but were hindered by a second place start and could not catch the leading boat. Our downwind speed was a little off the pace of the Cirrus R2. On Saturday we sailed four races and the wind kept building. After each race we kept tightening our diamond wires to flatten the mainsail going from a Loos Gage setting of 38 to 39 then to 40 and for the final race 41 (which is an almost max setting). For the final race the wind was a very solid 18 knots plus. Also due to the ebbing current against the wind direction the waves were very steep with a short period due to the shallow water. The Cirrus R2 skillfully sailed by Charles Froeb and Matthieu Marfaing dominated with four bullets (first place finishes). We were close to the R2 in all the races but not really threatening them and finished with four seconds.

For Sunday the wind forecast was again not sure but I decided to set up the boat for heavier wind. We set the mast rake further back and had tighter shroud tension. We also made an adjustment to our spinnaker pole bridle lines to give us a tighter spinnaker luff. Sunday was an earlier starting time at 11:00 but when we left the dock the wind was already up. I had estimated correctly because we had 13 - 18 knots of wind all day. We had reasonable starts with clear wind and could work on our boat speed. We found that with the adjustments that we had made that our boat speed was incredibly good both upwind and downwind. The new Nacra Evolution also cuts through waves very well. Even the wavy conditions we found it easy to keep the boat moving. We had the lead at every mark for each race and finished 1-1-1. Meanwhile our rivals had some difficulties with the current at the windward mark which pushed them into the mark on two different rounds and during one of the times they capsized sticking their mast head into the muddy bottom since the water was so shallow. With the R2’s difficulties the C2 skippered by Chris Green came on strong with two second place finishes. Final results were a tie for first place on points which Charles and Matthieu then won on the tie breaker (most number of first place finishes).

Steven and I were very happy that we now seem to have figured out how to make the Evolution go fast in a good breeze. I am looking forward to the first F18 regatta in San Diego on Oct 17-18 which I will sail with Evan Gregory. Most likely the wind will be lighter so that will be another challenge.