Midwinter Regatta
February 14th and 15th, 2004
Midwinters February 14, 15, 2004
After a long hiatus with no racing, Team CIA returned to the San Diego race scene for the first in a series of regattas for the new Beneteau 40.7 fleet. Five other boats competed in the Midwinters: Austin, Estelle B, Silhouette, Wiki Wiki, and First Light.
Crew for the Midwinders included Matt Brown on the bow, Matt Hurlimann on mast, and Margot in the pit. Francis,.and Beatrice trimmed and newcomers Linda and Alvaro rounded out the cockpit.. Kate replaced Linda and David joined us and was very helpful calling tactics.
A rainstorm followed by a complete loss of wind forced delay of the first race on Saturday.
Eventually, we got off to race once in some very shifty and variable winds. CIA got off to a decent start and remained close for the first leg. We managed to keep reasonably close to the other boats, despite the long lay off and inexperience.
The highlight of the day was when Matt H fell into the water at the dock and Matt B followed suit a few minutes later.
The second day for race 2, we did not fare so well. The problems started when we tore our spinnaker before we even got to the start. From the beginning we lost ground by starting at the wrong end and going too far off course. We were well behind the other boats, and after blowing our douse on the second mark decided to drop out and keep racing, but we did not go all the way up to the second windward mark. We turned around early so as to finish and get ready for race 3.
The third race was better than race 2, but we still made too many errors to be competitive. We managed to hang close enough so as to at least complete the final race of the regatta.
It was not our best regatta, but we did manage to get rid of some of the rust and looked forward with hope toward the NOOD’s in March.
Click here for race results.