Gorge Cup - DaKine Downwind Slalom

Excellent day of racing at the Event Site. We ran round robins (let's see, heat one is A-B, heat two is C-D, heat three is ADHD...), so everyone got to race a ton. The course was set really well with no super tight or broad leg. Conditions started out with raging high-wind slalom (I was lit on 6.2, Bruce and MacRae were on 5.4 and not lacking for power either).

Split into four fleets, we got two complete 6-heat rounds off. The wind got quite a bit sketchier then (I ended up using the 7.1 and the big board - which turned out to be a good decision), and we got four heats in the third round before we had to call it a day.

The juniors did great; Jay Watermeyer in particular showed that it's time to move up to the men's fleet (probably right after Nationals), but most impressive were the younger kids who really showed that they learned a lot yesterday at the clinic, and who were relentless despite the challenging conditions. These kids are definitely ready for Nationals.

Bruce won the day (yes, it's still his river). Jac LeRoux sailed very consistently, with good speed, good starts, and solid jibing and tactics to edge me out for second; I ended up in third, with MacRae breathing down my neck - very tight points standings between the three of us, reflecting the very fun, competitive racing.

Now off to SF for Nationals. I can sure use the rest day, even if it's spent on the road. So far, this little adventure is shaping up great.

Results and pictures should come up soon on the VMG Events site - I'll link from here when they're availalble.

Gorge Cup - 2010 Season Opener

Victoria Day weekend in the Gorge - and just to make all those visiting Canadians (plus your humble narrator from Bellingham, which is nearly up there as well) feel right at home, the Gorge was dishing out frontal conditions - gusty winds, clouds (we kept waiting for rain, but were spared), and chilly temps (I doubt it broke 50 while we were racing). Participation was a bit low, as most racers still seemed to be in hibernation - I think we got all of twelve people onto the water. Hey - where were you guys?

After feeling out the top of the course, I decided to go with the 9.1 to ensure survival up there, knowing that it would be a bit sketchy at the bottom, especially downwind. Hoping for the lucky puff on the inside was not going to be an option. I started on starboard for Race 1, but was a little further down the line than I wanted (it's been a long time since last season...). Bruce was the only port tacker to clear me; MacRae and Jay had to duck. I stayed in the breeze and made it to the windward mark in 2nd behind Bruce. He went inside, I jibed off to stay in the breeze. Apparently, being mayor of the Event Site does buy you the private glory puff whenever you need it, as he was still ahead of me at the bottom rounding, and we held those positions for the second lap. On the second upwind, I noticed that I was able to stay in clean air on the inside of Bruce, climbing a little on him but going a wee bit slower. That's a new one, as usually he pinches a bit more. The big fin I ran must have had something to do with that. On the second downwind, the guys following ran into some light spots, so it was Bruce comfortably in first, me in 2nd, and then Stephane and MacRae.

Race 2 then turned up the lottery factor a fair bit. I was again starting starboard, and I was alone on that side of the course except for Fiona. I positioned myself right at the boat, since it had gotten really patchy, and I didn't want to be too far out. Good thinking, but not sufficient - the wind at the boat shut off, while there was a puff at the pin end propelling the port starters over the line. I didn't get planing and over the line until something like almost 10 seconds after the horn. Then, however, I got a fair bit of breeze, made a lucky call to tack early instead of taking my chances on the inside, and made it from almost dead last at the start to 3rd or 4th at the windward mark. Skittish about the light patches on the inside, I jibed off and rode the breeze all the way down through the channel. That did get me to the leeward mark in 2nd, but just before getting there, the breeze shut off on me.

As I was slogging the last 20 yards to the mark, I was joined by MacRae, Tavis, and Jay, who had gone inside, but then jibed off as things got light and found breeze in the channel as well. We all rounded in one big cluster, and this is when things got downright aerobic. Being furthest to windward, I didn't quite have enough power to get onto a plane and to be able to bear off for the reach around the bottom end of the course. MacRae waited for the second puff, pumped up, and was gone, along with Jay, starting the upwind leg well ahead of me. The second lap saw is in those positions, and while I was working it pretty hard on the final finish reach, I couldn't quite pass Jay.

Races 3 and 4 were similar in that the start was highly influenced by erratic holes and puffs, and we all tried to make the best of it. Bruce was the most consistent in that endeavor; he did get buried in the start of one of those heats, but through smart sailing got himself back to the front to finish the day with four bullets. I switched to my 9.9 after race 3, when it seemed that the big gusts at the top of the course had abated a bit and the holes at the bottom gotten even bigger. That made things entertaining at the windward mark for the last heat, but with all the pumping throughout all those races, I must have been a bit oxygen deprived. I think I finished the day in 3rd after MacRae - we'll see when Scotia puts up results at http://vmgevents.com/.

Overall, not a bad way to start the season - we got four heats (which were plenty challenging given the huge range of conditions), I didn't break any body parts (which is how I'd ended last season, on the first day of Nationals), and everyone had some good stories about hard fought battles on the course. And while I thought that I really wanted to do another one at the end, especially as it seemed that the breeze was filling in, a mere 45 minutes of slalom sailing made it pretty clear that I was pretty much running on empty, so when the wind crapped out, I decided to call it a day as well.

The course was set out a little further, with a short first and a longer second upwind leg. That made for more tactical options than usual (I started starboard every race and usually made it to the first mark within striking distance of Bruce - the usual course layout tends to create a lot more port favor). The races were well run, Scotia was her usual textbook example of cheerful and friendly effectiveness and efficiency, and it was good to be out racing again.

Speaking of racing - there's a bit of a movement afoot to put a lot of emphasis on slalom this year, with lots of round robin heats of downwind slalom being run. Round robin downwind slalom is a really nice way of getting away from the Gorge box course, which seems to scare off some racers because of the mild upwind leg and tack involved. The reason for that format was to allow large fleets to race together, thus avoiding the sitting on shore involved with running slalom eliminations. Round robins get around that by allowing small fleets of sailors to race (so there's no giant pile-up at the first mark), but still making sure everyone gets to race everyone else during the course of the day. Look for more news on that soon - but be sure to get your slalom or freeride gear out, whether you've been racing with us yet or not, as it's going to be a lot of fun.

GorgeCup - June 20

After two super-windy GorgeCups with at times epic slalom, the forecast for Saturday was calling for more of the same; alas, the clouds had pushed inland a bit further than predicted, and the Event Site was right on the bubble, with some big gusts coming through, but also some larget holes over much of where the slalom course would have been. That made it an easy call for the RC to run formula.

The course was a short upwind to a port rounding, downwind to the start pin for another port rounding, a reach around the boat, an upwind to a second, more distant upwind mark (and another port rounding), and then a downwinder to the start pin and a reach to the boat to finish (the picture, courtesy of Scotia's camera being used by Rick on the boat, shows me and MacRae reaching for the finish. At this point, I'd say we were comfortably powered; things would get more entertaining later on.)

That course layout, along with a significant port bias to the line, limited tactical options. Pretty much the whole fleet started port (with that short upwind leg, even if there'd not been as much port favor, the extra tack was too much penalty to try anything else). There was plenty of space to lay the mark with one jibe, so again no incentive to try something different on the first downwinder, and the reach at the bottom was pretty much a drag race. Tactics, then, came into how to position at the bottom mark for the longer upwind leg - pinch off the rounding to take the inside line, or duck people above to foot for speed and gain clean air, then pinch up from there?

That calculation only really came into play when rounding in very close proximity. On the first heat, I found Chris Prior and Bruce ahead of me by about 50 yards at the mark, with Chris pinching and Bruce footing; having nowhere to go on port tack that would provice clear air, I tacked off - and the lighter air and lack of current on the inside cost me big time, so it became clear that wasn't really a viable option.

The only place to worry about tactics, then, came into play with the layline for the upper windward mark (as you were quite far out when you had to make the call, and there was a lot of current, so people tended to overstand the mark a bit), and then on the second downwind - as the inside had lighter breeze and some big holes, it was a matter of either jibing off pretty soon to stay with higher pressure (but battle the current a bit more) versus going to the inside for flat water, no opposing current due to the eddy, and just hope to either dodge the holes or perhaps get the golden header puff off the shore.

The first couple heats had some light spots; most of the fleet were on 9.9's or 9.1's, and Bruce was looking for power on his 9.1. Chris Prior took full advantage of that and took the first two heats from him, with me coming in 3rd; Bruce then went up to his 9.9 and took the remaining heat (with the exception of #5, where both he and Chris were OCS). Chris showed that he's definitely a force to be reckoned with, giving Bruce some very spirited competition throughout the day.

The two of them were spot-on in their starts for most of the heats; Chris had amazing angle, while Bruce had his usual good angle paired with really good speed. I got myself stuck in the wrong place on the line several times, having to foot off for clear air and as a result missing out on the inside of the lift on port tack. That usually resulted in the two of them rounding windward first, and from there it was a parade to the end. Through the day, I found that I had good speed and, when I had things together, good angle upwind. My starts were not so great, so that's the next thing to work on.

After four heats, the breeze was definitely coming up a bit. We took a bit of a break, with Darren contemplating switching to slalom. There was a lot of pressure coming up the river - but by the time he had to make the call, there were still a bunch of holes on the course. Darren therefore made the only possible call, which was to stick with Formula; sure, the puffs were getting pretty massive, but running slalom at that point would have resulted in pretty inconsistent racing.

At the start of heat 5, however, the breeze definitely picked up a bit. Unfortunately, I ended up getting lifted out of the water on the first beat when I hit some stray chop just as a big gust came in. The crash that followed must have caused quite a splash; it took me a while to get out from under my gear and get myself sorted - at that point, there was no one left behind me, and it took me the whole race to claw my way back up to fifth (which, due to Bruce and Chris having been over early, turned to 3rd).

The breeze kept building for heat 6, and for #7, things were going positively ballistic. I stayed with Bruce and Chris throughout the course, and at the bottom mark, I was able to shoot out to leeward of them, footing off for clear air. Bruce was up and ahead; Chris was pinching on the inside but losing speed in the steep chop, and I had a clean lane below Bruce with good speed. Next time I looked back, Chris actually tacked off to look for smoother water inside. Usually, that would be a really bad idea; by now, though, it had gotten windy enough that the swell in the channel was getting really lumpy. I was having a pretty challenging time keeping things together and attempting to keep the foils working. Bruce, having switched back to his 9.1 a couple heats back, was clearly enjoying the easier handling of the smaller sail. When I tacked at the layline, things got really entertaining; spray was flying everywhere, and I ended up going sideways a fair bit. Chris made it to the mark at about the same time as I did, but I had the benefit of being fully up to speed going around the mark while he was pinching, so I got by him and was able to pull away a bit on the downwind, finishing that heat second behind Bruce (a nice end ot the day's racing after all 3rds).

Normally, going to the inside should have cost Chris big time, but as crazy as things got out in the channel, it was the probably the smart thing to do and almost worked out for him. If I had bobbled my tack, or had I not been able to hold it together after one of those spinouts on the long hairy starboard tack across the channel, he would have been long gone. The conditions out there on the last race sure made me feel good about investing a bunch of gym time into crosstraining, as it was pretty much a matter of grunting through it at that point.

Special shout-out to Ben and Fiona, youngest sailors of the day. Both of them finished all but the last heat (and #5 and 6 were getting pretty furry already); quite an accomplishment to get big formula boards around the course in those conditions when you're that small. Here's a picture (again, courtesy of Scotia and Rick) that puts things in perspective a bit on the size issue:

I got to do a little slalom sailing afterwards, which was nice. Given how tuckered I was after racing (especially those last few heats), and how windy it had gotten by this time (I was way maxed on my 7.1; a 6.2 and a smaller board would have been a much better fit), it ended up being a short session, but definitely some good practice ahead of Nationals next month. Interestingly, when I ran the course on my slalom gear, I found that my angles weren't that far off. Sure, upwind I was going a bit lower, and it might have required an additional tack to make the uppwer windward mark. Downwind, though, I was definitely going faster, and as long as I stayed in the breeze, at about the same angles (oh, and it was really fun rather than character-building). Food for thought for next month's Blowout.

Thanks to Scotia for organizing another flawless event. It sure would be nice if we could turnout up a bit; some of the usual suspects have been absent this season (yes, we know who you are, and we're planning interventions...) Some nice pictures taken off the boat by Rick during the first few heats (when things were still very civilized...): http://gallery.me.com/scotia#100059&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=54

More slalom action

Another Gorge Cup, and more slalom racing (full disclosure, the picture is actually from the last Gorge Cup; since it was pretty much the same cast of characters and all the same gear, that didn't seem entirely inappropriate...).

Conditions yesterday were challenging -there was a lot of breeze, but it was frontal, not thermal, so there were some really furry gusts, but also some big holes to deal with. Bruce dominated, except for one heat (where it looked so windy that he took his 6.2 and tiny, 75l (?) slalom board and did really with his blazing speed and g-force jibes until he hit a hole, at which point he did the hula with the water reaching up to his belly button - hey, fat boards rule!).

I was on the Exocet 71 with my Sailworks 7.1, and that combo feels really good. It's got great glided through the holdes, can be pushed upwind, but still has very much competitive speed on the super-powered reaches.

MacRae and I had some really spirited battles for second place; I got him in the the end by something like a point. He once again sailed a very consistent set of heats, with really solid starts, good speed, and very reliable jibing. Jay put in a solid day as well. And then there was Sam Bauer, who just moved up to a more modern slalom board from his ancient Mistral - and got a bunch of top 5 finishes. I'll take full credit for that (as it's my Exocet 67 from last year he's riding now) ;)

The course was a bit modified from the usual box slalom, de-emphasizing the upwind leg a bit and making it possible to pretty much hit the mark on that, so there was less need for layline tactics on where to tack. This might be a good compromise for Nationals, as the out-of-towners usually aren't used to the upwind component, but a pure downwind slalom often turns into a bit of a follow-the-leader parade. The course felt a bit squished this way, but part of that was the way it had to be laid out to work with the oscillations in the breeze (yep, it was frontal for sure...). With a more reliable thermal, Darren should be able to stretch it out a bit more.

All in all, another great race day - we got in seven heats (and timed it just right - I sailed a bit after the last heat, and at that time it got flukey - there was still huge gusts, but the holes were now becoming pretty permanent on the inside marks). Racing conditions were a bit tough and character building; perhaps that's why the turnout was a bit low (or maybe those folks just went east instead - things were apparently classically Gorge nuclear out there). Seems that with the new, bigger slalom gear, those kinds of conditions can still be really fun to race (it just adds an element of challenge to the equation instead of making it frustrating, as it did in the days of narrow sinky boards and not-as-rangy sails).

Again a good junior contingent; Alex and Jay had a spirited battle (this time, Jay took it), Alyson finished EVERY heat (right on!), and Fiona came to race for the first time ever, negotiating the full course for the first two heats on her Starsurfer and a 2.5 before having to rush off for a soccer game (she actually stayed out at the boat after finishing the first heat, ready to go again).

Pictures and results probably pretty soon at http://vmgevents.com/gc/index.htm - Scotia again pulled off flawless organization, and Darren ran a tight series of heats. For all of you still on the fence about coming for Nationals in July - it's going to be awesome!

Gorge Cup - race report

5/27 upate: Pictures, courtesy Michael Hildreth - Nice shot of a start (Bruce below me, MacRae above me), and a great study of what a jibe looks like when done too tentatively (notice weight too far back, sail not aggressively enough sheeted in).

First Gorge Cup of the season on Saturday, 24 May - and wouldn't you know, despite the fact that it was not only a race day but also a holiday weekend, it actually blew! We had 9 heats of very powered up slalom, with some pretty furry gusts.

After having been way late to the start in heat 1, I clawed my way back up to 3rd after Bruce (on form, as usual) and MacRae, who set the tone for his performance that day by being on it at the start and executing flawlessly throughout the race. 

In heat 2, I managed to be on the line with speed at the gun, following Bruce through the first three jibes. He was on a smaller board, so I was hoping to maybe get by him on the upwind leg - but just before I got to the offset mark at the bottom of the course, I had one of those wipe-outs where everything happens so fast, you don't even know what happened. All I know is that I got sent, and that in the process I hit my left thigh on something - hard. It hurt like hell water starting, and when I got on the board, my leg just sort of buckled, so I went in and sat out the rest of that heat with an icepack stuffed under my wetsuit leg.

I got back out there for heat 3, and while the adrenaline (and icing between heats) kept the pain at bay, my leg was awfully weak, which didn't serve too well in overpowered reaching, making my way through the chop to the start, or jibing. The racing was still fun, and at times it was even reasonably tight. MacRae continued to have a stellar day, taking two heats from Bruce (he joked later that he'll just retire now that he'd such a golden day;  my take is that this is the result of lots of practice and his great, go-for-it attitude) and placing second in the others (except for another bullet in the last race, which Bruce sat out). The recipe was always the same - he was right there at the start, had good speed down the straights, made solid jibes all day long. Way to go, MacRae!

I ended up with a bunch of 3rds and a fourth, plus a couple deeper finishes (usually following a bad start or a fall). Interesting note on gear choices - it looks like most guys have upsized a bit. Jay is running an iSonic 111; I'm on my Exo 71 (118l); MacRae is still using his three-year-old 105l F2 (and he's clearly tuned up on it). Bruce was going for a smaller board for a few of the heats (two of which he lost to MacRae) but also experimenting running his 6.2 on a bigger board.

So yes, the bigger boards can be a handful in the big puffs, but they sure come in handy on the short upwind, or when tacking after that leg, and they don't seem to carry too much of a speed penalty. And while they don't jibe as tightly and quickly, they make up for that with faster acceleration out of the jibes, especially on the inside if the breeze lightens up a bit. At the time, I kept thinking that maybe I would have been better off on something smaller than a 71cm board and a 7.1, but on the drive home it finally struck me that - duh - I was working on 1 1/2 legs, so no wonder that things seemed a bit out of control.

I'm pretty stoked with how the day went, and two days later, I'm actually walking almost normally again (and might be completely pain-free if I hadn't decided to go sailing today - but hey, it's Memorial Day, and it was breezy and sunny...). Great way to start the season - lots of breeze, a well-organized event (Scotia really has this down to a science - Nationals this year will be awesome!), a well-laid course and tight start sequences (way to go Darren - again, Nationals should be great), and a ton of racing taking full advantage of the conditions. Strong performances from the juniors (Alex and Jay were seriously pushing some of the seasoned racers; Alison did a great job getting into slalom, and Ben was inspiring in his tenacity), added to the happy picture.

Results (and maybe even pictures - Michael Hildreth was out on the point with a _very_ big lens) soon at the VMG site.

Off to do some racing

After light Easterlies last weekend led to cancellation of our season opener, it looks like we might have better luck today. This morning, there are bright skies and a good breeze in Hood River, and the forecast looks promising - perhaps even slalom potential. Should be a good time!

Gorge Challenge - Day 3 (final)

Sorry - something went wrong when I downloaded pictures off Scotia's camera yesterday afternoon, but all the files are garbled, so I can't serve them up here. Hopefully we'll get some going; Pete DeKay was taking pictures of the awards, so we should get those online somewhere soon, I hope.

Meanwhile, here's the course we ran Sunday - Darren mixed things up a bit with a pretty slalomy formula course - Start, round A to port, B to port, Start Pin to starboard, Finish Pin to starboard, A to port, B to port, Start Pin to starboard, finish.

Conditions started out pretty tame, with some people joking about rigging their 11's to make the breeze come up. When we got on the water for the first heat, it was very nice 10m formula racing, and while it filled in a bit more, I was very happy on my 9.9 for the day. We got five races, which I finished 2, 2, 4 (fell at the jibe at the bottom of the course - in this fleet, you can't as much as sneeze without being passed, much less fall, which makes for really fun racing), 3 (Derek pulled off the first really successful port start of the day), and 1.

And that last one had a bit of a story to it. After Derek won the windward mark in heat 4 after starting on port and having to duck almost the entire fleet, it became apparent that maybe the advantage on the right side of the course had gotten big enough to overcome the starboard bias on the start and make it worth letting most of the fleet cross, so I went for a port start on the last heat. Stefan managed to squeeze in above me, with Derek and MacRae below me. Lots of frantic weaving through the crowd ensued, but when we were finally clear of the fleet and out in the channel, it became apparent that we were in the right spot. I made it to the windward mark in first, ahead of Bruce who was coming across from the OR side and tacked in my wake.

From this point, it was a bit of a drag race; I made it around the jibe mark, and the breeze was so filled in that I decided to jibe right there as opposed to taking it a bit further down. That worked out well, as I could lay the bottom mark, and set up to jibe just above it. As I came to the mark on starboard, Bruce came in hot on port and tried to squeeze by on the inside with a tight jibe. Any other sailor trying that, and I'd probably have bailed out to avoid a collision; instead, I just went for it and shot by below him to ensure he'd stay behind me. Unfortunately, the clew end of his boom clipped my shoulder. He decided he'd called it too close and DSQ'd himself, which, while being good sportsmanship, was a bit of a bummer as I'd hoped to hold on to that lead for another lap.

Overall, Bruce won both the formula (NRT) and slalom events, as well as taking the overall Gorge Cup title for the year. I placed second for the formula piece and ended up in sixth for the slalom - I'd hoped for a chance to redeem myself a bit there, but by the time the conditions were filled in enough to run slalom on Sunday it got a bit too late to switch formats before the awards and banquet. Probably just as well - as we were sitting down for the excellent food, I couldn't help notice that it was perfect 7.2 wind out there, and neither I nor any of the racers I sat with had any itch to go out and sail more.

One highlight of the day was the new formula weed fin design sported by Peter DeKay, who ran into a submerged log between those dolphin-style pilings on the Oregon side. The attempts to remove that fin from the box entertained folks at the Event Site for over an hour, with as many as six people wielding all sorts of tools to attempt to dislodge it. Bruce put on an impromptu board repair clinic (Hot Stuff superglue and accelerant and 4 ounce glass makes for very quick layups - combat repairs have just become bomb proof).

Check the VMG Events site for complete results - and while you're there, start memorizing the names of some of those juniors, who are moving up in the fleet. This is a pretty strong contingent of young sailors, and having seen them put in the work during the Sailworks Junior Race Camp all week, I'm pretty impressed.

Overall results show that this surge of juniors is coming none too soon; for the season, the top 5 consist of 4 Masters and one Grand Master. I guess in this sport, age groups are affirmative action for the young - hopefully the current crop of juniors will change that. Seeing how Steve Sylvester in the Bay Area still dominates a bunch of guys in their 20's at over 60, it's safe to say that experience is not a disadvantage in racing windsurfers. Pretty sweet, if you think about it, that there's a sport where up to three generations can be truly competitive with each other (and that doesn't involve checkered shorts and country clubs).

Now back to work for a week (work, yeah, I knew there was something I needed to take care of...), then off to Squamish for the Canadian Nationals next weekend. Wow, the season is coming to a close - not sure I'm ready for that. In the Gorge, it's been a fun season of very well organized racing. Scotia is a nation treasure, pulling off some of the finest events anywhere. She'd putting on next year's Nationals in the Gorge, and she's got some pretty big plans, so plan on showing up next July - it will be a blast.

Gorge Challenge - Day 2

Whoa - 15 heats (both formula and slalom) in two days - we're getting a lot of racing in. The day started with quite a bit of breeze, but the clouds made things a bit inconsistent (especially on the inside), so Darren called for Formula. Different course today - short upwind leg with a starboard rounding (port starting made no sense with this setup), followed by a downwind around the start line, a longer upwind (which meant that there'd be some tactical calls to be made), and then a downwind finish off the boat. The first heat was pretty windy; it picked up from there. Heats 2 and 3, however, still had big holes in some spots, so slalom was still not indicated. Heat 4 got downright furry. I had a 3rd, an OCS, a 6th (I'd started in the 3rd row, being a bit gunshy after being over early, then had to claw my way through the fleet), and a 2nd.

At this point, despite all the jokes about how that would instantly killed the wind, Darren switched format to slalom to take advantage of the conditions (and to avoid the carnage that seemed inevitable with formula gear in those conditions). We got 5 heats in, and Darren called things off after that to avoid running us in the now somewhat fading late afternoon breeze. Things were pretty lit up on the 7.2; I placed 5th, DNF (after a gnarly collision with Derek on the line - took a chunk out of my favorite fin, but both of us got off without injury or any other damaged gear, so we both felt pretty blessed), 7 (after a spectacular wipeout), 3, and 3.

I'm sitting in 2nd for the formula part of the event; slalom has me in 6th at this point. Forecast is strong for tomorrow, so hopefully more slalom and a chance to move up a bit. Time for fin repair and some stretching now. Scotia already has results up (anybody ever wonder how she does it all?).

The level of competition is pretty high, especially in slalom (you can tell the Gorge locals have had a pretty windy summer so far...). Special mention, though, has to go to the Juniors who are not only racing their FE gear in some pretty epic conditions, but are also running slalom (some of them on FE stuff). Especially impressive are the three youngest competitors (Ben, Allyson, and Marion) - lots of spirit, and each of them is a stand-up sailor. Right on!

Gorge Challenge/FE Northamericans - Day 1

Quick update on the day - I'll try to post something each night. Check the VMG Events site for the NOR and schedule, as well as results and such. Conditions were interesting today - lots of breeze, with clouds pushing through the Gorge. This definitely had a frontal feel to it, not the usual Gorge thermal gradients. Darren set up for course racing; the course contained one reach at the top, one at the bottom, with A fleet going for two laps and juniors and sport going for one. This all seemed like a really good idea at the time (the forecast wasn't really promising too much...).

The wind kicked up a notch, so I went out on my 9.9, set up for moderate conditions. That seemed fine as I ran the course prior to the first heat. When we all lined up for the start, though, the wind picked up some more - which made the whole experience a bit hair-raising at times (I added a bunch of downhaul before the second race). We ran three course heats, with Bruce taking bullets in each. After getting a pretty bad start on port, I was fighting for second with Derek (who's bet on starboard paid off big) in the first heat when I misjudged my layline for the second windward mark (I didn't notice that the wind had gone way South - so I got headed big time into the mark and lost a bunch of places when I had to double tack). I ended up fifth in that one.

On the second heat, we now had a big bunch of port starters. I had to duck some starboard guys, which then put me in bad air from people who'd started behind/above me. After some footing off for speed (kind of exciting when you can barely keep the board from flying off the water), I made an aggressive call on the layline and worked hard to get myself back into second, which I held all the way to the second windward mark when I hooked the anchor rope - and lost a bunch of places to end up in 7th. Heat 3 saw me starting on starboard, which worked way better - I was pretty much Derek and me chasing Bruce around the course, with me finishing second.

Because conditions had been pretty furry throughout the morning, Darren called a break at this point to reset the course for slalom. I was a bit concerned (as things seemed to get a bit light and holey on the inside), but there seemed to be plenty of breeze all over the course. We got three heats completed in increasingly light and shift conditions, running our standard Gorge slalom box course (there's a pretty significant upwind leg in this one). I ran my 7.2 and a 42cm fin, looking for good angle. The first start resulted in a general recall (seems like for the first slalom heat of the season, we were all a bit jumpy).

We managed to run 3 slalom heats in the increasingly erratic breeze (it's not so much that the breeze was dying - it was more that the holes on the course got bigger and bigger). Heat 1 worked pretty well for me until I stuck my rail in the third jibe - I ended up fifth for that one. Heat 2 worked pretty well - good start, following Bruce around the course; as we struggled with a light spot for the upwind leg, we got a warning shot across the bow in the form of Stefan, who was riding formula gear and managed to squeeze into second riding right up to the upper mark (whereas Bruce and I had to foot way off into the channel to get an assist from the current). I passed him in the reaching part of the course, but he stayed on it, and the second upwind was pretty much a repeat of the first one, which got him second for the heat and me third.

The third heat got really flukey - Stefan won the heat on his formula setup (I had done the same thing to Bruce last year in similar conditions; this year, he was prepared, riding a bigger board and an 8.2 - but with the huge holes now riddling the course like Swiss Cheese, even that wasn't enough), Bruce came in second. I clawed my way back to sixth after losing a bunch of places (12th or so) when I parked myself in a hole after the third jibe (at which point I'd been in second) and got rolled by a pack of sailors who rode a puff down the course towards me. In that race, I actually ended up slogging the last leg into the finish...

I think that today was a great demonstration of the different priorities race directors have to deal with. Darren really wanted to secure good course racing and thus erred on the side of conservatism in the morning - choosing to run course rather than slalom even when it was blowing stink to ensure the event got a bunch of heats under its belt (and there's no better way to frustrate a bunch of racers than to call for slalom and have conditions deteriorate on you). Once we had three heats, and the wind was defying all expectations by continuing to build, he finally relented and changed formats - which was then rewarded by the almost instant deterioration of conditions. In a perfect world, we could set two courses and switch formats at the drop of a hat; too bad there's no such thing as a perfect world.

Da Kine Derby - July 14 Gorge Cup race report

Originally, we'd hoped for slalom, especially since we had a two day window to run either on Saturday or Sunday. With the sudden emergence of a short heat wave on Friday, though, when the wind switched West again on Sunday, it wasn't slalom material (despite Bruce's best attempts to convince us otherwise, milking it hard on his 8.2 as Darren was setting the course). Instead, the call was for Formula, and that turned out to be the right decision, as instead of holey/flukey slalom of questionable quality, we got to do some really good course racing.

The course was short and fun - a quick upwind to the gate, round the jibe mark, back up to the gate, back down to the jibe mark, and reach for the finish (the juniors did only one lap). That made for an interesting combo - because the races were so short (only one heat in which the wind crapped out on us, took more than 8 minutes for the leaders; most were around 7), good starts were crucial. The gate added a tactical dimension - if you rounded to the right side of the course, you'd have two jibes and might overstand the jibe mark; if you rounded to the left side (and into shore), you might not make the jibe mark and end up with three jibes - and you pretty much had to make that decision as you lined up to start either port or starboard, as throwing in more than one tack would have taken you out of the race right away.

In most of the heats (especially early, when the start line was pretty long), starting on port was the ticket - you'd get into the current, flop over, then ride the smooth water on the inside all the way to the jibe mark. Later on, a shorter start line, along with a bit of Northerly slant to the breeze, mixed things up a bit. There were some great fights for position at the bottom mark as people jockeyed for the inside lane going up. Off the breeze, we had to occasionally go for close calls when going into shore and navigating around the large "dolphin" style pilings, which must have made for entertaining spectating from the Event Site bluff.

We had seven heats. Bruce dominated, winning 6 and then sitting out the last one. I had 4 seconds, one 3rd, and one 4th (horrible start on that one), and won the last one in Bruce's absence. MacRae, Jac, Derek, and Eric Sinclair all had some really good heats - it's fun to have close racing like that, with lots of little duels all over the course. I got reasonably close to Bruce a few times, but his solid tactics and consistent speed and angle left no doubt that he owned this one. It's nice to see that now that I'm tuned up on my Exocet and the Finworks fins, I'm competitive with Bruce on speed and angle (if you've ever lined up with him, that's not easily accomplished).

Speaking of gear - I'm pretty happy with my overall setup. The Sailworks sails continue to give great range, stability, and performance. My Exocet WF08 is a joy to sail with its responsiveness. And the Finworks fins are working really well - it's nice to have the confidence that you can push on the fin when you need the power, while still maintaining great speed and providing that smooth, predictable ride that allows you to push. I used a Pro all day and later let a friend test it while I provided a benchmark for him and he switched back and forth between the Pro and the fin he had raced all day; afterwards he actually accused me of sandbagging because the difference was so apparent. It took me a while to recalibrate things from last season, as I've made some pretty radical changes in my gear and haven't had enough opportunities to line up with tuning partners. At this point, I'm glad I did, as the investment seems to have been worth it.

One of the things I'm noticing is that my stance has changed quite a bit. I'm using longer and longer harness lines (roughly 26-28", as opposed to a max of about 24" last year). I've also been experimenting with a fixed (as opposed to sliding) spreader bar; while it doesn't give me that tweaked/twisted body position that I used to like for driving the board, the more squared stance seems to provide more leverage to really take advantage of the liftier and softer fins, so I spend more time flying the foils and less time tail walking. Still working on that one, but so far it seems to be a net positive, especially in slightly rougher water. Interestingly, that also seems to translate to slalom, except there I haven't really had a chance to test it against others, so it's just a matter of feel at this point.

A big shout out to Bill from Da Kine, who sponsored the event and provided not just a kick-ass BBQ dinner, but also a really nice array of raffle prizes. Thanks also to Scotia for again organizing a fun day of racing - she's a logistical power house and probably one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Next up for the Gorge Cup is the Exocet Blowout on the weekend of July 26/27 (date to be set based on forecast) - a fun downwinder from Stevenson to Hood River, which usually provides about 17 miles of highly variable conditions and is always good for epic stories.

Gorge Cup - season finale (sort of...)

So in my last post I made the mistake of looking forward to the racing we should have on Saturday based on the really strong forecast. Which, of course, was a grieveous error. On Friday, while I was in the car with my family driving to the Gorge, the forecast collapsed about as fast as the pressure gradients did, and we got to the Event Site to the remnants of what had been 5.0 conditions and had now turned into very marginal formula sailing at best. The forecast for Saturday, at this point, was calling for light Easterlies - which was roundly pooh-poohed by everyone at the beach. After all, how could the whole thing change so quickly. Surely, there'd be some breeze on Saturday.

And there was - the picture above shows the extent of the breeze we got during the window of opportunity we had for racing. The picture was taken by Carey Caronni off the jetty at the Event Site (thanks, Carey!) - so you can tell it's Easterly, and it's ripping ;)

Hope sure had a good time with this setup - this was the first time we tried towing her behind the long-board, and it made a big difference, as she could be independent but still feel safe, plus I could get her going, since it's hard for her to drive that big board with her 1.7. Thanks to Roger Jackson for the suggestion (I improvised the tether with four bungee uphauls daisy-chained together; I'm sure rope and regular bungee would have been lower in drag but this worked well). That was a lot of fun, as was the fact that the racers made the best of things as Scotia and Darren organized paddle and swim races and Scotia got a chicken bbq lunch delivered - so it was a nice day at the beach.

The wind did eventually pick up - right around 6 pm, and streaky, so we didn't miss much as we went off to the end of year awards ceremony and CGWA end of season party. Turns out that in overall standings for the season, I came in third behind Bruce Peterson and Doug Beaman. We only got 6 scores this year (we were unlucky in losing two races to the weather, and another two to equipment malfunctions related to the committee boat), so there was only one throwout, and I had missed two races (the Blowout and the August 18 race). Congrats to Doug - showing up is a pre-condition, and the vagaries of whether conditions will enable racing are certainly always part of the game.

I'm planning on doing a bit of a recap on the season in the next couple days. For now, I'd just like to say that I'm grateful to have such well-organized racing with such a competitive fleet here in the Northwest. Scotia is an organizational power house (as well as a saint to put up with us all). I've had a lot of fun racing in the Gorge this year, and I can't wait to do it all over again next season.

One more...

Labor Day weekend is upon us, and summer is almost over. One more race in the Gorge - if you were ever about the fence about racing, this would be a good weekend to come down, as the forecast is excellent for the whole weekend, and turnout is likely to be good with the long weekend, and the awards party on Saturday night.

Gorge Challenge - quick report

Wow - what a wild and windy weekend. Three days of racing, twenty-five heats in slalom and formula. Then into the car and down to San Francisco for Nationals.

I came in 3rd overall, behind Bruce Peterson and Chris Prior. The event was really well organized, the courses were fun, and the racing was intense. If I'm not tuned up for Nationals now...

Lots of highlights; I'll post some analysis later, but here are some Clif notes:

• Day 1 - started out with really lit Formula racing; switched to slalom. Then conditions got a little flukey - I ended up winning a slalom heat on Formula gear.
• Day 2 - super windy, so we ran a couple formula heats, then did 10 slalom races. Epic.
• Day 3 - full schedule of Formula. Very powered up, and great racing. Ended the day on a bullet - nice way to go into Nationals.
• The juniors were a delight - fun to race with, and really stoked.

Scotia organized a flawless event and took great care of us. Darren ran excellent RC on the water. Pictures and results here. Thanks again to Dave Frazier for making pictures available, and thanks to Scotia (and Jackie, for being her helper) and Darren. And to Bruce, who (while helping half the beach tune their sails and fix their stuff, and spreading local knowledge around, lent me a slalom board since mine needed some repair).

Now on to Nationals at the St. Francis!

The Gorge Cup that wasn't

While thousands of couples all over the country were tying the knot and gamblers were taking their chances given the supposedly lucky date of 7/7/07, the Gorge Cup was on the receiving end of some not so great luck. Sure, we had racers, raceable conditions (actually, it was stupid windy and had been for days; I got a nice Friday afternoon session as well), a race committee, and a boat. Unfortunately, while setting the course, the committee boat suffered mechanical failure - a 1/4" metal rod in the steering linkage sheared off, leaving the boat with plenty of power but no steering. Oops...

Darren set an anchor and, after it became clear that this couldn't be fixed in place, bobbed around waiting for rescue (see Exhibit A...). Scotia organized a volunteer on a jet ski, hoping to salvage the racing by setting a figure 8 course and guiding the boat into a good spot to set a start/finish line, but despite valiant attempts, the ski operator never got the outside mark set in the crazy conditions (it ended up getting blown way downwind past the tip of the sandbar and had to be retrieved from there).

In the meantime, though, it was pretty furry on the water. Exhibit B in the picture (rather grainy, I know - so much for cell-phone photography) shows you that there were solid caps and 1/2 foot chop on the inside, just off the breakwater at the Event Site - a spot that's usually glassy. Outside, it was windy enough for Dale to be on his jump board and 4.2 Hucker. I borrowed a smaller slalom board from Bruce and got out on my 5.0 holding on for dear life, and later (after it let up just a wee bit) we had really nice powered up slalom sailing.

I got some great speed runs on my 6.0 and 24" slalom board down from the lower Hatchery into the eddy below Wells Island; after one particularly fast one I figured I'd go get my GPS. By the time I got back out, though, the wind on the inside (where the water is flat enough to go fast) had died. I got one peak speed (one second interval) of 37.1 knots, but the rest of the readings were all around 33 knots - which is about as fast as you could go in the channel where the wind was holding. This was similar to the day before, where I also didn't think of getting the GPS out until the conditions had deteriorated a bit.

As bummed as I was about not getting to race, I had some great sailing, so overall I'd call it a successful trip. Thanks to Scotia and Darren and Sam for trying to salvage the racing; they sure tried hard.

Gorge Cup - 6/18/2007

To maximize the amount of racing, race director Darren Rogers set up two courses at once - a simple windward/leeward formula course upwind of the committee boat, and a 'Gorge Slalom' box course below the boat. As I had just gotten my new 7.2 Sailworks NXsl, I decided to take it for a spin while Darren was setting the courses - since I was powered up pretty well despite some holes, he decided to call me the wind dummy and start out with slalom racing.

The first slalom heat saw the whole fleet late for the start - Bruce got to the line first, at about four seconds late. I managed to mistime the start to badly, I wound up going over the line at something like 10 seconds after the horn, buried in something like 12th place in a tight knot of sailors. In the mayhem at the first mark, I had to go really wide, which didn't help too much. Through the two lap course (each lap including a 'free leg from the last jibe up to the layline for the starting pin, adding an element of upwind performance and tactics to the race), I managed to claw my way back up to 7th - not bad considering I ended up swimming at one jibe to avoid hitting a sailor who had crashed right in front of me.

For the second heat, I was determined not to repeat my bad start. Apparently, everyone else felt the same, as the whole pack was moving aggressively toward the line. At five seconds, I found myself close to the boat (upwind) end of the mark with a sailor above me and the whole pack slightly back and below. I tried bleeding a little speed, but the sailor above kept pushing, so I went for it hoping I'd be OK. Darren blew another horn, but as I looked back I saw no flag; instead of going back 'just in case' I decided to go for it, not knowing whether I'd been over early. I had a great race, rounding the first mark in 2nd right after Bruce and keeping that position throughout the heat. Clean air really helps, especially when it gets flukey - as the race progressed, we gained more and more distance on the fleet, as the packs kept having to pump hard out of the turns. Unfortunately, it turned out that I was over early (by about a board length, Darren told me later). Bummer, but it sure was a fun race.

The third heat saw bigger and bigger holes on the course; Stefan decided to run the course on his Formula gear because of this. I got a clean start and rounded the first mark in 2nd behind Bruce, right ahead of Doug. I kept that spot throughout the first lap until the free upwind leg - when out of nowhere Stefan emerged pointing straight for the pin we needed to round, while I was getting pushed downwind by a header. Bruce avoided being passed and opened up some distance on the downwind portion; I followed Stefan into the three-jibe reaching part of the course and managed to squeeze by him around the second jibe mark (Formula boards take up a lot of real estate on a slalom course...), but the gap I opened up on the last reaching leg and with the faster jibe around #3 was not enough as on the upwind leg, I had to pump through a hole while he just motored straight up to the pin again - I missed him by less than a board length. Given what he had to do to hang on to his big gear through the slalom course, he'd certainly earned that one.

Since it got a little flukey for slalom, Darren switched to Formula - a good decision. We had four excellent, very powered up Formula races. On the first heat, I got a good start on the pin end (again the course was pretty port favored, so there were only a handful of startboard starters). I had great speed and angle and was able to hold my position against Bruce. He called a pretty aggressive layline for the upwind mark, which seemed too dodgy to me, so I went a little further to put some in the bank. That paid off, as we hit a huge header on the approach to the mark, which meant he had to double tack while I could round the mark in first. As I headed off the wind, I saw the breeze on the inside near the Oregon shore all filled in, so I decided to stay on starboard and try to get down to the leeward mark that way. Bruce, apparently deciding that he had a better shot of passing me by looking for more breeze in the channel, jibed after rounding the mark. My call paid off, as I rode a good puff all the way down the course, jibed on the layline, and rounded the bottom mark with a healthy gap at least five seconds before Bruce. I held that position around the windward mark, having slightly better speed but lower angle upwind. Then it was decision time - another ride on the inside, or play for better breeze in the channel? I decided to stay on the inside, having had to work through a little hole on the approach to the mark. Looking back, I saw Bruce rounding just as a big gust came down the middle of the course, which caused him to jibe and ride the glory puff down the channel. I considered covering him, but didn't because there was a big hole between me and him, virtually guaranteeing he'd catch me. As I made my way down, a big hole opened up on the inside, and I lost enough time pumping through that and out of my jibe that Bruce easily beat me to the leeward mark and into the finish reach, so I came in second.

The next three Formula heats saw increasing winds at the top of the course (albeit too inconsistent at the bottom end of the course to switch back to slalom). I had three more solid starts but wasn't able to sneak by Bruce again, finishing second in all of them.

Lessons for the day:

• Slalom starts are hugely important - and the difference between being over early and being late enough to get buried in the pack is a matter of just a few seconds.
• Leaders make their own luck - the further up front you are in a slalom race, the less you're affected by holes, as you're only pumping out of holes, whereas in the pack you're also battling the turbulence and wakes created by the rest of the sailors.
• Don't let up even after a bad start - while it's hard to pass people on a slalom course, it's certainly possible, especially with the free upwind leg.
• Don't underestimate the power of Formula gear in a reaching format - while I had tons of speed and faster jibing on Stefan, he was able to take advantage of his ability to power through the lulls and get boatloads of angle on the free leg. Maybe there's something to the ever-increasing width (and thus planing power) of slalom boards; it's not just about how fast you can go and how hard you can carve your jibes, but also about whether you can keep your speed in the holes.
• Races aren't over until you're through the finish line. I had a flawless 3/4 of a race in the first formula heat, but Bruce still got me by making a smart tactical call for the last downwind leg. I'll need to figure out my downwind tactics a bit better if I want to ever score a bullett.
• The range of our modern gear is amazing. We were formula racing in well over 20 knots, with gusts quite a bit higher than that at the top of the course. It was FUN. We were slalom racing in mostly 20+ knots, with some pretty furry gusts, but also some pretty significant lulls. Again, it was FUN.
• I love slalom sailing. It's pretty close to flying, exhilarating, exciting. On a race course, though, I'd rather get blown off the water on Formula gear than race slalom in shifty, inconsistent conditions. I don't mind the gusts, that's all great - you just go faster; the lulls, however, are a different story, as pumping out of a jibe in a pack with inconsistent winds can be pretty tough. Time to start thinking about a wider board.
  

After the racing was over, I spent a bit more time sailing on my slalom gear, since that's a treat I don't get too much in the summer months in Bellingham. The new 7.2 is simply amazing - locked in, fast, stable, rangey, with great acceleration but very user friendly in the jibes. Bruce was kind enough to take some pictures (see above for one of those - more in the Gallery).

Results and photos should be up soon on the VMG Gorge Cup site (thanks Scotia!)

Gorge Cup pics

Scotia posted some pictures of last weekend's race. Some really nice shots from Zoe Peterson (Bruce's daughter, all of 11 years old). Interestingly, the one she got of Bruce being over early in the second slalom heat didn't make it.

Some favorites:

• Carnage at the start of the first race of the day (the one that ended in a general recall).
• Slalom start
• Lone starboard tacker - this was right after I made some flip comment to Darren about the line, and he very seriously asked me whether I truly thought people might think port could possibly be favored.
  
• Mulder...
  

Gorge Cup - 2007 season opener

Blazing sunshine and lots of breeze - definitely a good way to start the season. Darren set an interesting course - a gate just above the start line as the leeward mark for the first lap, with the finish being a reach to below the boat from the starting pin. Everyone seemed plenty eager for the first start, and most seemed to have recognized the significant advantage from starting on port - with the short course, only one tack would be required to lay the WW mark, and the outside was favored due to the strong current in the channel providing an extra boost. In fact, eagerness ran so high, there was a general recall.

The restart was clean; but I ended up in a horrible position way down after having to duck under several sailors just to run into a huge hole in the middle of the course that required some frantic pumping. At this point I was pretty deep, but was able to recover several places by making a pretty aggressive call on the layline for the windward mark - I rounded somewhere around 6th or so, then two more places on the way down due to another aggressive layline call and some very committed pumping. I got into fourth behind Bruce, Rob Mulder (who had the most amazing windward leg with blazing speed and angle, even pinching off Bruce), and Alex Aguera who was running the course on a 24" slalom board and a 7.2 - he had amazing speed off the breeze, and didn't lose too much upwind (he was going a little faster and quite a bit lower, but the short course still allowed him to lay the mark in one tack). As I was chasing Rob and Alex (Bruce had gotten ahead of Rob on the first downwind and never looked back), I witnessed an incredible display on the finishing reach with Rob holding off Alex - he sure put all that leverage to good use.

I gave my 9.9 a bit of extra downhaul and switched down to my 66cm fin (since pure upwind power didn't seem to win the day) and got 2nds behind Bruce in races 2, 3, and 5 - in #4, I couldn't hold Alex off on the second downwind as we rode a big puff down from the mark. When the puff hit, it was like he had hit some afterburners. Throughout, there were some spirited battles with Doug Beaman, who was racing very consistently and starting very cleanly.

As the fifth heat had been *very* powered up, and given Alex's display on his slalom gear, Darren switched over to slalom. To make for a faster switch, he did a slightly different course. Instead of in the middle of the course, the boat was now at the top, upwind from the start pin. Start on starboard, three jibes, then head out into the river for a free leg and tack to make it back over the start/finish line to complete the lap. We ran three two-lap heats. Unlike the old box course which had an upwind mark, the tack was a bit further out - this turned out to be significant. One of the nicest things about this setup was that we never had to jibe around the boat - hence no worries about hitting the anchor line or getting wrapped up in the boat if there were carnage during that jibe.

Alex was still running the same gear as before, except a slightly smaller fin - bigger than Bruce (who had opted for speed and jibing) though, which allowed him to reel him in on the free leg. All those years of pro-racing clearly showed, as in three slalom heats he got three bullets (Bruce was OCS in the second heat). The nature of the course was giving a bit of bias towards bigger gear and pointing - since the closer you were to the pin when you tacked, the more aggressive you could be on the layline. Most racers (me included) ended up tacking a bit too late, as it was hard to call the layline in the somewhat variable conditions. This was clearly underlined by the fact that Stefan was able to score two fourths and a third in slalom on his formula gear - he'd be somewhat slower on the reaches and losing a lot of ground in the jibes, but then he'd just motor upwind.

For the formula part of the day, I would have placed second. With the addition of the three slalom heats, I ended up in third with Alex taking second after Bruce. Always good to place that close to such standout sailors.

There was quite a bit of carnage at the marks - probably as much a function of this being early in the season (and everyone still being a bit rusty) as the fact that after five very overpowered formula races we were all getting a bit tired and sloppy.

Fun racing all around, and Scotia again pulled off a very nice event. Between the site, the race management, the amenities (excellent lunch and drinks and snacks all provided), this has got to be the best value in racing anywhere. Check here for results; pictures to follow.

GorgeCup06 - Season Finale

In what was probably the strangest set of conditions any of us have ever raced, we concluded the 06 Gorge Cup season with some very fun and challenging slalom racing in Easterlies at Cascade Locks on Saturday, September 12 (yes, you read that right: slalom in Easterlies).

This was the second day of strong Easterlies in the Gorge, and when I got to Cascade Locks after making the drive from Bellingham that morning, I was greeted by the sight of Dale and MacRae ripping it up on 4.2 and 3.7 Huckers as Darren was desperately looking for spots to anchor some marks. The channel is very deep in this part of the river, so after much work and trial and error, he finally had to settle on a rather short figure 8 slalom course close to the Oregon side of the river.

The course setup made the best out of the challenging, gusty, somewhat flukey conditions, and Darren managed to set up a sufficiently long startline to enable a bit of separation. Still, coming into the first mark was an adventure, and from then on the constant crossing on the short reach was 'exhilarating' (in that 'oh @$&$ kind of way, as you're trying to avoid collisions) with some in the fleet being overpowered and everyone returning on port concerned about pinching enough to make the boat for the second rounding. Certainly made for interesting racing, and some of the mark roundings were rather chaotic.

In the first heat, I took the 7.2, as it had dropped a bit and I didn't want to be struggling to accelerate out of the jibes. Turns out, that was the wrong call, as I was seriously fighting my gear. In the second through 6th heat, I was on 6.0, and that seemed like pretty much the right call. Results were a bit inconsistent, as the chaos at the marks and the dicey crossings made things challenging. Kudos to the fleet - nobody got hurt, and everybody had the good sense to pull out and avoid collisions when things just got too wild.

In the seventh heat, conditions got lighter, so I was back on the 7.2. Unfortunately, as we were heading back after the first mark, Dale (who was leading), Bruce and I got hit with a big header. Dale seesawed his board over the boat's anchor line (quite the freestyle trick), while Bruce and I simply couldn't make it (all three of us had ducked a bunch of sailors coming at us on starboard at the outside mark, and then Dale had sat on top of Bruce and me, so we lost a lot of ground - too much to compensate for that big header). Bruce went in, and I ended up doing the same (first time I've ever abandoned a race I might have finished with a couple of extra tacks or some swimming - my 3:15 am departure from Bellingham and a long day on the water was starting to catch up with me).

Results were a mixed bag for me with 6th for the day; Dale took the day in front of Bruce. MacRae did an excellent job maximizing his performance in the challenging conditions and got third. Doug and Andy showed good consistency for 4th and 5th. Results for the day at the VMG website here. Despite being a bit disappointed with my results for the day, I was stoked we got to race (it certainly didn't look promising all week given the forecasts we had seen), and racing slalom on the last day of the season certainly was a treat. Plus racing with this fleet, it's impossible to have a bad day! Thanks to Scotia and Darren, who made a fun and worthwhile day of racing happen despite conditions that made this far from easy for them.

It's been a great season again this year, thanks to great organization and a fun, competitive fleet of racers. Can't wait to do it again next year. That night we had a ceremony and banquet at Divot's. Overall results for the season can be found here. Dale took first overall, with Bruce in second (first master) and me in third. Jac was fourth (and first Grandmaster), with Doug in fifth and MacRae in sixth. Shelley won the women's division and again showed that she can hang with the guys.

Here are some things I'm stoked about after this year's Gorge Cup season:

Tight competition - the fleet overall has gotten quite a bit tighter. Sure, we're still following Bruce and Dale around the course. But personally, I've been able to get closer to them, taking the occasional first position at the windward mark. I'm planning to improve on that a bit more next year. What's cool, though, is that our pod of racers chasing those two has gotten so competitive that (a) they can't always dominate in 1 and 2 if they make a mistake, and (b) any bobbled tack or jibe or slight miscalculation on lay lines can mean the difference between 3rd and something like 7th place in a race - that's a sign of good competition.

Juniors - Bruce's junior clinic was great (I just loved watching them out on the water, and when I took my daughter out there to show what was going on, I could just see the light turn on in her!). Seeing those kids duke it out in competition was excellent. And seeing that we have juniors in the Gorge Cup fleet racing in challenging conditions and really sending it just makes me excited about the potential of it all.

Sportsmanship - the Gorge Cup fleet is a friendly crowd, and I see a lot of very commendable behavior every time we're out racing. People take responsibility for their actions - withdrawing after seriously fouling another racer, doing their best to keep things fair and safe, and having a frank conversation if things got heated on the course. There's not a lot of defensiveness, and everyone seems to have a keen interest in keeping things fun and fair for everyone. What's more, though - there's a lot of informal helping and sharing going on. More experienced racers help newcomers, and everyone freely shares and compares what works for them. That's the way a fleet grows and gets better - let's keep it up.

See you all next year!

Race Report - GorgeCup - August 12 2006

Get your slalom stuff ready, it's going to blow like stink...

At least, that was the received wisdom the day before. And while it was breezy on Saturday morning, it was nowhere near full-on slalom conditions. Instead, the Event Site served up the usual perfect Formula conditions (powered on a 9.9, warm air and water, grassy rigging...).
After a brief skippers' meeting, we got out on the water. The course had an upwind gate for the first lap, with an upwind mark further up for the second lap (off the hook outside of Wells Island), which made for fun tactical options. Starting on starboard, you might make it with one tack, then go downwind in the channel. Starting on port, you were virtually guaranteed to make it in one tack, and would then have the option of playing for a lucky puff on the inside, where the Southerly comes off the shore sometimes.

Bruce and I both got our 5-minute signal and found ourselves gambling on a port start. Dale and Jay and Doug and a bunch of other sailors played the starboard card. At one minute to go, as I'm looking down the line, I'm noticing Dale and Jay lining up and shooting over the line by the boat. As I'm thinking to myself that this is a bit late to come across for a last-second port start, Bruce and I approach the line battling for position. Turns out, they thought they were starting (a minute early), encourage by Darren who had gotten confused with a borrowed watch (ok, it was mine, so I guess it's all my fault...) and had them on their merry way at minus one minute. While that made for a nice clear port start for us, it also meant the race had to be thrown out since there was no way to rectify that situation afterwards.

Not to worry, though - we ended up getting seven more heats that day. I got thirds in heats 2 and 3, in both races beating Dale upwind but getting reeled back in downwind. A fourth in heat 4 after I mistimed my port start and had to go way below the pack, which gave Kieran (who had a brilliant start and good speed, and didn't let up throughout the race even though I was nipping at his heels at the end) a third. In heat five, I was third around the first lap, then got flung in my jibe at the bottom of the course. As I was flying through the air looking a bit like a cartoon character (you know, running off a cliff and moving horizontally for a while before gravity finally asserts itself), I saw three sailors bearing down on me, all scrambling to find a lane between the mark, the log raft, my gear, and me - a bit nerve-wracking, I'd say. Miraculously, there were no collisions, and once I got back onto my gear after a bit of a swim, I managed to claw my way back to 7th on the second lap.

After a short lunch break, we went back for three more heats. Heat 5 had me lining up on port again, which by now was becoming a bit crowded. As I was finding my gap on the line and threading through the starboard guys, who were coming further and further down the line to cut us off at the pass it seemed, I was barely able to avoid two sailors who had some sort of yard sale just below me. That left me the choice of either spearing them (I still don't know who they were; I think Stefan was one of them) or pushing upwind, which put me right in Joe's path. I chose the latter and dropped myself and my rig to windward, hoping I'd either give Joe space to avoid me or at least make it a low-speed collision. The plan worked, but resulted in me getting off the line at 2:30 minutes after the gun, after untangling from Joe and making sure everything was OK. I finished the heat, getting back up to 8th mostly on the strength of good UW angle and speed.

Race 7 still had me a bit rattled, and I bobbled a tack as I was in 3rd coming up on the second Windward mark. This resulted in two guys getting on top of me, and me having to throw in two extra tacks to make the mark, resulting in a sixt.

Race 8 saw Bruce sitting out taking a throwout (as he'd already beaten Dale for the day). I started below Dale but was a bit early, so I ran the line for a bit and ended up ducking a bunch of starboard starters. As I got to the gate, Jay was approaching from the other side (he'd started on starboard) and crossed in front of me (Dale was leading quite a bit at this point - he was using Bruce's fin and found out why Bruce had that extra little bit of speed all day). He had one jibe to make it down to the mark, and he was out in the channel where things were steady. I wasn't going to reel him in by being conservative and going out into the channel, so I gambled on the inside. It almost worked, too, except for a wee hole at the bottom of the course, so I double-jibed and rounded the leeward jibemark behind him. At this point, he put on afterburners, and no matter what I did, I couldn't close the gap on him until the end.

Results can be found here. Jay and I tied on points for third overall this day, with him taking the tie-breaker since he placed second behind Dale, giving him a higher best placing for the day.

Overall, a great day of racing. Anytime you get 8 heats off in near-perfect conditions, with this kind of fun and competitive fleet, I'd call that a good day. Kudos to Scotia for putting it all together and Darren for running smooth races and a nice course - now we just need to work on figuring out that count-down feature on my watch for him ;)

Race Report - GorgeCup#6 - July 29 2006

BeepBeepBeep... - it's 3:15 am on a Saturday morning, and my alarm is going off - Race Day. Because the forecast is for strong winds and Darren and Scotia have announced they will try to run downwind slalom if the conditions are right, the skippers' meeting has been pulled forward to 9am from the usual '10-ish.' I get in the car and start my 320-mile pilgrimage from Bellingham to the Event Site...

As I got there, it's clear that the marine layer had made a deeper push into the Gorge than forecast - it was windy, but a bit flukey and definitely not slalom conditions yet. As the morning wore on, Darren decided to set a formula course first instead of just waiting for wind. The course was a bit different - UW mark lower but closer to the WA shore than usual to undo some of the usual port favor, followed by a broad reach as opposed to a downwind leg, and then three jibe marks before the reach to the finish - Formula Slalom ;)

In the first heat, I started on starboard, with Bruce and Dale on port. The port starters had to duck a fair part of the fleet, but managed to take advantage of the current and the lift on the WA side; I had to let them go, as I had too much traffic following me on starboard to tack early and effectively cover them. Jay followed Bruce and Dale, and rounded out the top 3 at the mark, with me following. The reach down was pretty powered up and didn't give a lot of opportunity for tactics - basically hold on until you got to the first jibe mark. We had no position changes through the jibes, and at the bottom of the course it was Bruce, followed by Dale, Jay, and myself. As we took it back upwind for the second lap, Bruce had made a very good rounding and started pinching like crazy, controlling Dale's position. Jay tried to shoot out from under Dale but got himself pushed down too far for my taste, so I decided to tack off. This seemed to work great, because as I got up to the windward mark, I crossed Bruce (Dale had also tacked over, but later than me), with Jay being pretty far down). Checking out Bruce's angle, I put a few more boardlengths in the bank, then tacked secure in knowing I'd easily lay the line, figuring I'd round in 2nd. Unfortunately, we were both hit with a huge header and had to double-tack. We both got squeezed out by Dale, and Jac and Doug got me as well and kept their positions to the finish - proving again that this fleet is pretty tight these days (we all finished within seconds).

As the broad reaching had been quite entertaining, lots of racers lobbied Darren to switch to slalom now - I'm sure that a more traditional UW/DW course would not have evoked the same reaction. Darren obliged, and after a bit of a break with course resetting and a skippers' meeting, we switched to downwind slalom (as opposed to the box course we usually run). The fleet was split into four groups (plus the sport fleet, which had its own start), and we did a round robin, assuring each sailor would race each other sailor at least once in each round (each racer would have three races in each round of 9 races).

In my first heat, I had neither Bruce nor Dale to contend with, as they were in the other heat. I got a good start just below Doug and was able to push ahead of him with a good burst of speed, making it to the first mark in first and keeping the lead. We hit some soft spots around the course (other than that, I was nicely lit on the 7.2), but Doug and I were in the lucky position to have clean air as we were separated nicely from the fleet, which helped us extend the lead a bit. So that's what it feels like at the front of a slalom race ;)

My second heat paired my group with Dale's, and he managed one of his trademarked fully-lit starts at the leeward end of the line. I was just above him, holding speed, but he held me off through the jibe and kept his lead. Now the holes were getting bigger, and Dale demonstrated how leaders usually get the 'lucky' puff by virtue of getting there first - we kept planing into the third jibe, and as he pumped out of there, I fell off the plane in the disturbed air despite pumping hard. Sam and MacRae were right on my heels and managed to stay on the plane, rolling me out of the jibe while also pumping like madmen. I got myself going again before the fleet caught up to me, but there was another big hole waiting for us at the fourth mark, after which everyone slogged, even Dale who'd gotten their far ahead of us. We all caught some more breeze on the home stretch. Wow, this was turning into exercise.

My third heat paired me with Bruce's group. I got a good start again, and was able to follow him into the first jibe mark. He pulled away from me in the jibe, and we were nicely powered until after the second jibe. Then the holes re-manifested. Bruce was able to pull through it a bit better, opening the gap a bit. We were both a bit ahead of the fleet at this point, as we had benefited from clean air and undisturbed water around the first two marks. At the third mark, it took some frantic pumping to get planing again, and the fourth mark saw us both slogging for a fair amount of time. The fleet following was not fairing any better, though, and we got going again in the middle of the finish stretch, with Bruce winning comfortably and me in second with a good lead on #3.

After the first round robin, lunch was called, and afterwards the breeze got more solid and the holes at the bottom of the course got smaller and less severe. My fourth heat was again without Bruce and Dale. Jac timed the start a bit better than me and was below and ahead of me, but I managed to set up right above him, and got the inside track on the first jibe. Even though he rounded ahead of me, he was now so far below that on the second leg, as the breeze let up a wee bit, he wasn't able to pinch me up, and he barely made the third jibe mark and had to take it wide, allowing me to squeeze by him on the inside and rolling him. Jibes three and four were in relatively light air, but still fully planeable, and I was able to lead into the finish.

On the fifth heat, I got a great start and was able to roll Dale off the line as he had to bleed off a little speed to avoid going over early. I led him into the first mark and set up for a nice jibe, but for some reason couldn't figure out how to get my rear foot out of the strap - great timeing for my only bobbled jibe of the day. I could actually hear Dale laughing as he jibed right at the mark while I took a very wide turn around it, having initiated too late. Oh well, next time, buddy... ;) Dale led into the finish, with good breeze all over the course except a little weak spot right at the finish. My sixth heat I ended up following Bruce around the course.

So overall, my slalom placings were 1, 4, 2, 1, 2, 2, which together with my 5th in the Formula race put my comfortably in third for the day. Bruce and Dale were tied for points for the day after discards, with Dale winning the tie breaker. They had each beaten the other once and lost once in their two slalom heats against each other.

After the two round of slalom were complete, Darren called it for the day, as it was after 4:30 and another 9 heats would have taken us well into the evening. The round robin format certainly eliminated one of the major concerns about downwind slalom, as there was no waiting around for double-elimination ladders to finish. After you finish a heat, it's pretty much time to get back out there for the next one, and the RC can just click off the races. Very fun indeed - I can see why the Maui slalom series uses that format. The races are short, but definitely intense. Of course, unlike the box format, there's not much chance of coming back after a bobbled start or mark rounding.

So after a quick dinner with some friends and a caffeine infusion, it was back to Bellingham - falling into bed about 22 hours, 640 miles, two fuel stops, 1 course race and six slalom races after I had gotten up the previous morning. A good day, for sure ;)

Check here for complete results, and be sure to come out and join us for the next GorgeCup - Saturday, August 12.