Berkeley delivers

Day 3 of the US National Champs saw the Brazillians dominate both the formula and slalom courses in classic SF Bay conditions. 3 formula races were run in 18-24k followed by 3 rounds if slalom in 20-25k.
Paulo Des Reis collected another string of bullets as he's on par to sail a perfect regatta, something that I'm not sure has ever been done at the US Windsurfing National Championship. Not to be outdone, Wilhelm Schurman collected 3 bullets on the slalom course followed by a string of 2nds on the formula course.
The first race started off with the breeze filled in and most on the 9.5-10m rigs.
There wasn't as big advantage to the right side today as previous so most continued to the corners to maximize their VMGs which Paulo seemed to have the best of. He simply sailed away from the rest of the fleet. Schurman played the 2nd fiddle while McGain and Ferlet battled it out for 3rd and 4th.
Sylvester managed a consitstant day closing the gap on me and we remain tied at the end the day for 5th. In all but one race he was clearly ahead and finally I tried to wear him down in race 2 when he left the door open on a wide leeward mark rounding. The next upwind I inched my way matching his speed and angle and evern rounding in front of him at the top mark only to have him call the better lay line to the finish.
The lesson to be learned is play your last move well. It doesn't matter if your ahead or behind just make sure you don't blow it before you get the finish.
After 3 races we switched to slalom but at that point I gad to listen to my body after having been in race mode for the past 16/17 days. I gladly made my slalom gear available to Paulo as he currrenly wasn't entered in the slalom comptition and showed he's pretty solid around any race course. I'm not sure I've ever seen my gear go that fast! He gave Wilhelm and Phil a run in the 2/4 races but called it quits to save strength for tomorrow an saturdays long distance and course racing.
3 races were run in 20-25k with the San Francisco city front and golden gate bridge in the background- an amazing backdrop for sla.om racing.
Schurman clearly dominated with better gybes around the course even if Phil was ahead. PRO Darren Rogers ran the fleet till 6:45 when the last race was run and racers returned to BYC for dnner and a screening of Wind and Water, a film by Bill Wier.
On the line up tomorrow is more course racing and the possibility of anlong distance race or more slalom. The freestyle competition will continue to be run from his lordships at the bottom of the basin.