Day 1 regatta report US Windsurfing national championships

Day 1 of the 2011 US Windsurfig national championships took place in the San Franciso Bay off the Berkeley marina on Tuesday, July 12 with 39 competitors from the US, Australia, Brazil, England, Finland, Latvia and New Zealand.
4 course races were run in winds from 12-28k with the foreign sailors taking the top 3 spots. Paulo Des Reis, BRA-3333 walked away from his comptition by taking the 1st four bullets of the regatta with Wilhelm Schurman, BRA-999 holding on for 2nd in all the races. Xavier Ferlet, GBR-451 holds onto to 3rd place with myself in 4th as the top American.
Race 1 was delayed until 2:30 when the wind was not quite filled in but rather dead on the left side and building to 18k near the pier. Many sailors were caught off guard including myself as we found the big holes around the course and an unstable shifting wind. The lesson is to never give up. You never know what's going to happen to the guy in front of you.
Finally by race 2 the breeze built to a solid 25k with BRA-3333 and BRA-999 taking an early lead. I followed S3 & GBR-451 around the leeward mark and was able to carry it a bit further at the pier & managed the windward beat in 1 tack while the other 2 had to double tack at the windward mark. A lot of racing has to do with finding the right agles around the course so you can set a course to the next mark most efficiently. From there I stayed ahead taking 3rd.

Short break back on shore and another 2 back to back races in 20-25k the dying down to a managable 18-22k for the last race.
GBR-451 stepped it up adapting the the conditions with a 9.0 & 61cm fin while the rest of the fleet was on 10.0 and under. KA7 was noticlbly abscent missing the race. I managed a close race in race 3 just finishing 1/2 board behind Xavier at the finish of the 18 min race for 3rd place.
Finally in race 4, Sylvester Got a great jump at the start as I got rolled by Xavier who spritzed off the line for a great start at the pin end.
I had to fight my way through the fleet one board at a time rolling Percey upwind and Soheil off the breeze as I was able to call the better lay line at the bottom mark just before the shirt rexh to the finish. Unfortunately just not enough time to catch Sylvester and Ferlet who rounded out the top 5.

Tomorrows forecast looks similar with slalom on the agenda in the afternoon in the breeze builts enough.
Full report at www.waterhound.com