May 3, 2026
by Earl Thomas #5121
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Ahoy to Springtime Sailing,
There were cloudy skies but we had sunny dispositions on the start of an ominous morning on Sunday. There was a heavy overcast sky to the start along with a sprinkler/spritz on the morning drive to the lake and for the first 45 minutes after arriving. Everyone showed up early and that worked out well as we all got nearby parking spaces. But I think the foul weather was keeping the public crowds at home. But as the weather improved during the day the people correspondingly showed up as we were wrapping up our event.
Simon, Ralf, Earl, Adrian, Richard, Harold, Maria and family, Yossi, Russ, and Tony were the sailors today at the Spring 1, 2, 3 races. Vern and Jim dropped by to say hi and encourage us. We had 3 Lidos, 1 Sunfish, 1 Hobie Islander, 1 Zest, 1 El Toro and 1 FoamFishFour. We were missing a bunch of you other sailors.
We enjoyed early morning donuts while doing the usual racing setup and rigging, courtesy of Harold and Maria. It was a nice kickstart to the day. Thank you.
Roy and Don were on RC. Thank you for great decisions and the interesting racing under the conditions. I don’t recall any over OCS's, so we were all behaving well. Don said he learned a lot, so he could go solo next time?
The day settled into an overcast day with 2- 8 mph wind with an occasional gust and a little cooler than usual. The wind direction was from the southwest direction near the golf course and other tech buildings, opposite the usual direction. We had to rearrange the course layout and shift it far right from the normal layout orientation. Roy made a good decision to switch and the wind held steady from the new direction most all the day. The big sailing change was the reverse courses. Sailing the courses in reverse order and starting from the opposite side of the normal starting line and taking all marks with a starboard roundings, It was very confusing for most but we got into a cycle of hailing other boats , "it’s a starboard rounding, remember.” The approach to the marks, with the reverse, turned a starboard tack and that lay line into the opposite you would want. There were several encounters as to port and starboard. And who was inside boat and did starboard have the right away? We need to check with John on this scenario.
We did 5 races today, courses 1, 1, 3, 2, 4. I single handed it for race 1, 4 and 5. Adrian crewed with me in 2 and 3. Ralf crewed for Simon and there was the usual compliment of familar sailors on the Blitz.
Russ was dominate today in his speedy Sunfish, Harold led the Lidos overall, Simon and Ralf seemed to work well together and were competitive, Tony zipped about and was adjusting his mast rake several times as conditions changed, Richard was crazy fast and moved well in the slightest puff and Adrian was finding it hard to move in the initial low speed winds and Yossi kept up with us in his bright yellow Zest.
Simon borrowed a set of my extra sails and that may have been a mistake on my behalf. As he and his crew Ralf kicked my butt all day. So we now have another serious competitor in the Lido fleet. Watch out. No good deed goes unpunished.
The finale race of the day was race 5, it was reverse course #4. We all headed off the line toward mark 3, and I was trailing the fleet being single handed. Everyone headed straight to mark 2, the reaching mark, after rounding mark 3. I looked at the course chart and thought that wasn’t right but they were all following the leader. The normal course reads 1-2-3-1-3, the reverse is 3-1-3-2-1. But everyone except me did 3-2-1-3-1. I got a first place and an NSC was on the board for the rest of them. I tried to convince some during the day, but to no success, that the reverse courses also included that port tack boats have the right away over starboard tack. A couple of people thought for a second that might be right, but finally came to their senses and told me no way.
After race five, I got a little lazy being single handed and got broad sided with a puff and dipped the starboard rail enough to shout some 4 letter nautical terms, frantically release the main sheet, get to the high side and luckily only got 2 inched of water in the boat. Though it was just enough to rinse out the muddy spots from the mark’s anchors. So good planning I THINK.
Snacks afterwards were courtesy of Adrian, Roy and Earl. There were apples, bananas, fruit salad, chips, yogurt and apple juice, so a pretty healthy fare. Except for the leftover donuts but who’s looking anyway.
The next races, will be 2 weeks from now, on May 17th. The El Toros will be RC and Steven will man the RC boat.
There were cloudy skies but we had sunny dispositions on the start of an ominous morning on Sunday. There was a heavy overcast sky to the start along with a sprinkler/spritz on the morning drive to the lake and for the first 45 minutes after arriving. Everyone showed up early and that worked out well as we all got nearby parking spaces. But I think the foul weather was keeping the public crowds at home. But as the weather improved during the day the people correspondingly showed up as we were wrapping up our event.
Simon, Ralf, Earl, Adrian, Richard, Harold, Maria and family, Yossi, Russ, and Tony were the sailors today at the Spring 1, 2, 3 races. Vern and Jim dropped by to say hi and encourage us. We had 3 Lidos, 1 Sunfish, 1 Hobie Islander, 1 Zest, 1 El Toro and 1 FoamFishFour. We were missing a bunch of you other sailors.
We enjoyed early morning donuts while doing the usual racing setup and rigging, courtesy of Harold and Maria. It was a nice kickstart to the day. Thank you.
Roy and Don were on RC. Thank you for great decisions and the interesting racing under the conditions. I don’t recall any over OCS's, so we were all behaving well. Don said he learned a lot, so he could go solo next time?
The day settled into an overcast day with 2- 8 mph wind with an occasional gust and a little cooler than usual. The wind direction was from the southwest direction near the golf course and other tech buildings, opposite the usual direction. We had to rearrange the course layout and shift it far right from the normal layout orientation. Roy made a good decision to switch and the wind held steady from the new direction most all the day. The big sailing change was the reverse courses. Sailing the courses in reverse order and starting from the opposite side of the normal starting line and taking all marks with a starboard roundings, It was very confusing for most but we got into a cycle of hailing other boats , "it’s a starboard rounding, remember.” The approach to the marks, with the reverse, turned a starboard tack and that lay line into the opposite you would want. There were several encounters as to port and starboard. And who was inside boat and did starboard have the right away? We need to check with John on this scenario.
We did 5 races today, courses 1, 1, 3, 2, 4. I single handed it for race 1, 4 and 5. Adrian crewed with me in 2 and 3. Ralf crewed for Simon and there was the usual compliment of familar sailors on the Blitz.
Russ was dominate today in his speedy Sunfish, Harold led the Lidos overall, Simon and Ralf seemed to work well together and were competitive, Tony zipped about and was adjusting his mast rake several times as conditions changed, Richard was crazy fast and moved well in the slightest puff and Adrian was finding it hard to move in the initial low speed winds and Yossi kept up with us in his bright yellow Zest.
Simon borrowed a set of my extra sails and that may have been a mistake on my behalf. As he and his crew Ralf kicked my butt all day. So we now have another serious competitor in the Lido fleet. Watch out. No good deed goes unpunished.
The finale race of the day was race 5, it was reverse course #4. We all headed off the line toward mark 3, and I was trailing the fleet being single handed. Everyone headed straight to mark 2, the reaching mark, after rounding mark 3. I looked at the course chart and thought that wasn’t right but they were all following the leader. The normal course reads 1-2-3-1-3, the reverse is 3-1-3-2-1. But everyone except me did 3-2-1-3-1. I got a first place and an NSC was on the board for the rest of them. I tried to convince some during the day, but to no success, that the reverse courses also included that port tack boats have the right away over starboard tack. A couple of people thought for a second that might be right, but finally came to their senses and told me no way.
After race five, I got a little lazy being single handed and got broad sided with a puff and dipped the starboard rail enough to shout some 4 letter nautical terms, frantically release the main sheet, get to the high side and luckily only got 2 inched of water in the boat. Though it was just enough to rinse out the muddy spots from the mark’s anchors. So good planning I THINK.
Snacks afterwards were courtesy of Adrian, Roy and Earl. There were apples, bananas, fruit salad, chips, yogurt and apple juice, so a pretty healthy fare. Except for the leftover donuts but who’s looking anyway.
The next races, will be 2 weeks from now, on May 17th. The El Toros will be RC and Steven will man the RC boat.
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