 | Vanguard 15 West Coast Fleet 53 |
| Home | Events | Roster | Mailing List | Charters | Links | Dues | Photos |
| Tomales Bay Regatta at Inverness Yacht Club | October 11 - 12 |
| Story |
| Oh what a regatta! We sailed 16 races, we drank hundreds of beers, and we made some great new friends in the CA state park ranger service. We ascended to the Samuel P. Taylor state park Friday and fired up the BBQ and the campfire. Ranger Tom Barto paid us a visit at 10 pm sharp to complement us on our fabulous guitar playing, and another at 10:40 for marshmallows.
Saturday's racing was short and sharp. We got 8 races off in 10-15 knots from the N-NW. The strong ebb into the wing drove the waves up to 3 foot chop. Beautiful downwind surfing conditions. Robbie Dean/Maddy Eustis sailed very consistently to have a commanding lead after day one. Tough break for Kevin/Becca being dismanded at a very crowded windward mark rounding. Racing was over at 2:30 with BBQ to follow. After a great dinner at the Station House Cafe we again returned to the Samuel P Taylor campground. Immediately after our return to the campground our friend Tom Barto again joined us at the campfire for a discussion of "mellowness". After Lurking in the Bushes and being unable to hear a pin drop, he returned for a discussion of CA state law. Ranger Barto read a V15 sailor's driver's license number and informed us that he was not just a ranger who cleaned toilets all day, but was indeed a peace officer who cleaned toilets all day. I do my rest to reproduce one conversation: Barto: You have two options you can go to bed, or you can go to jail. V15 Sailor: Uhhhh, I guess I'll go to bed sir. Barto: Ok, but you're really going to bed, no chiming in from the tent. V15 Saior: OK. Barto goes away, lurks in bushes. V15 Sailor goes to bed in tent. V15 sailor from tent: Yo, can someone pass me a beer. Barto: Hey, I thought you weren't chiming in! (Directs bright flashlight into tent) V15 Sailor: I'm sorry sir. In the end, no one went to jail. There are three meaningful results that came out of our stay at the Samuel P Taylor state park. 1. The PRO declared that redress could in fact be granted if one was unable to attend the race because they were in jail. This would be scored as "INC" (Incarcerated) and count as average points minus 1. 2. We were issued $192 in parking tickets in addition to the extra vehicle fees we paid at Samuel P Taylor state park. 3. The PRO also approved renaming the regatta the "The Ranger Tom Barto Invitational Regatta" Ok, back to sailing. Sunday saw a little more wind and an earlier start. This time the wind was a bit more NE and the chop was even bigger. Team Tom Allison/Amy Lyons sailed very strong to move up from fourth, but Dean/Eustiss were just too fast to let it slip away. Philip Laby and Alex Symes sailed a solid regatta to take third. This may have been the highest turnout for a regatta away from TISC. Thanks to Rolf Kaiser for organizing (and running) a fabulous event. Thanks also to the Inverness yacht club for hosting us and to TISC for use of an inflatable and marks. And finally, thanks to ranger Tom Barto for lessening our hangovers. |
| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| Regatta Message Board |
