Day #1: It’s not so simple racing on San Francisco Bay….

The prep...modifying the right boot with some padding

Safety check...dropping off name tags.

According to Scott, it’s a bit tough trying to pick when to switch sides in a changing current.

Yesterday morning we drove up to the St. Francis Yacht Club and could see the Apprentice’s, Grand Masters and Great Grandmasters out on the water in about 6-10 knots of breeze riding an ebbing current.  You know what I was thinking… 'I should have sailed, these are my conditions…’  Well, by the time the Masters (which would have been me) went out the breeze was building and the current starting the flow.

In race #1 in the Master Standard fleet, also the biggest fleet, Scott had a solid start just up from the pin and went left. The general rule of thumb: when the current comes in you stay left. At the weather mark, the leaders had come in from the right. On the next beat, Scott took the left again even though he saw Russ and Arnoud going right.  He was convinced that now was the time to stay left… it wasn’t.  Scott finished 10^th in that race.

In the second race the current was flowing hard and Scott was relieved to see local guy, Russ Silvestri, right with him down at the pin and poised to go left. Left finally paid off. Scott managed to come into the weather mark in first place, reaching on port where he threw in a tack to round and hit the mark thus having to do a 360. Arnoud was able to fly by with Russ nipping at Scott's heels. Russ slowly ground Scott down in the first part of the final beat going left but Scott tacked early and was able to grab Russ back to finish in 2^nd right behind Arnoud Hummel (NED).

The race committee chose to shorten race #2 by two legs as they were at their 60-minute target after three of the five legs. The beats were 25 minutes long and the run only 8 minutes. So, now you see… strong current!

Hats off to Arnoud Hummel (NED) with a 1,1 and to local boy, Russ Sylvestri (USA) with a 3, 3 and don’t rule out Brett Beyers (AUS) in third with a 5, 4. Scott ended the day in 4^th overall but did say before the event began that trying to hold a place in the top five would be a battle…we’ll have to see what happens in the next few days!

In the meantime, Arnoud's wife Marion and I are great friends and no matter who wins or loses, it's all good. As the guys set out to sail, we rode our bikes to the TRX Training Center and after an hour long class, we too had felt like we had spent the day in a Laser!

A little side note: Arnoud’s training partner is his son Yuri Hummel who was 3^rd in the 2011 Radial Youth World Championship (130 sailors) and 2^nd in the 2011 Europeans…not your average sailing family!

launching off the beach at Chrissy Field

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