2007 Fall Dinghy (and a little more swimming)

Yesterday, Dean and I raced his Vanguard 15 in day one of the Fall Dinghy Regatta at St. Francis Yacht Club. A building breeze throughout the day countered by a simultaneously increasing ebb tide made for some interesting racing. With just 8 boats in the fleet and a rather large and true starting line, it was pretty easy to find good lanes off the starting line resulting in nice crowded mark roundings and tight bunches down wind. In a couple of races, all 8 boats were spread out abeam of each other on the downwind legs as each skipper tried to discover the best combination of high wind (outside) and low current (inside).

We were tied for 4th after six races, but due to other commitments today, aren't going back for day two. Oh yes, there was more swimming involved. Coming out of a rather rolly roll tack in race 4, I missed the hiking straps and went flying backwards out of the boat. Dean waited patiently while I got my legs untangled from the jib sheet and clambered back aboard. Dropped from 4th to 6th because of that--bummer.

Here's a slideshow of some GPS plots of the racing:

Involuntary Swimming

Put the Megabyte in the water for the first time today. Chose San Pablo reservoir as a low key place to go where I couldn't get into too much trouble first time out in a new boat. Hmmm . . . two minutes out from the dock with a nice puff filling in across the lake, I slid my butt over the side and loaded up the hiking strap. Bazaaang! back flip into the water. I'm sure I had checked the knot on those straps! Luckily the boat stayed upright and I was able to haul myself back in before the lake patrol hit me with a citation for "body contact" with the "drinking" water. (They still let fish swim in there, don't they? And birds . . .)

So wait a minute, what's this Megabyte thing? Well, racing the Vanguard with Dean resurfaced my passion for racing small boats. I decided to get a one person dinghy that I could tool around in for fun and go racing once in a while. Happened to find a really nice Megabyte dinghy while visiting Seattle a few weeks ago. Bought it. Shipped it home. Sailed it today. First race is the Turkey Shoot Regatta at Lake Washington with Megabyte Fleet 3.