US Windsurfing Nationals Day 1

57 windsurfers from Europe, North and South American sailed the first day of the 2007 US Windsurfing Nationals from Crissy Field in San Francisco.
The flog cleared at 1pm for the first race of the junior division, By 2pm the 40 board formula fleet was off to their first start in a building 14-16k breeze.
I started mid-line on starboard with my 9.9 with a nose out on the board to windward. As I approached the sea wall near the St. Francis YC it was evident the breeze was a bit lighter near shore. I tacked early as I knew we would be sailing back into a flood tide and wanted to be the board ahead and to leeward as we headed back to the middle of the course. Ben was far out on the right course after ducking most of the fleet for a port start and Seth was on my windward hip. I tacked on the starboard lay-line and immediately my mast snapped below the boom.
Nothing to do but try to recover as fast as I could.
I derigged on the water- got picked up by the rescue board and was back on the water within 15 min for the next start.
Thanks to Kevin Kan for the disaster recovery relief on the beach!
By race 2 my adrenaline was pumping hard as I just made the start after a brief postponement as a container ship made its way through the golden gate and our course.
I rounded the top mark in 4th after a clean start and put the pressure on David Wells downwind going for the pass to windward but just ran out of time before we gybed at the layline.
Upwind it was Ben and Seth who went back and forth in 1st and 2nd while David stretched out his lead over me by giving my bad air at the leeward rounding. 2 more times around the windward leeward course I held off Steve S who was pushing hard in 5th. Just behind him the pack was Al and Eric for a close finish.
After a 30 min. break on the beach and a quick refelling- we headed back out for race 3.
By now the flood tide was increasing and the wind died off some to 12-14k with some stronger gust but more frequent lulls. I was off with the pack on starboard as Ben and Eric went for the port tack ducking the early guys down the line. Eric went down as Ben wove his way through the fleet and off with clear air to the right side. I tacked early again just before the seawall but the guys who carried it further actually got an inside lift. I rounded the top mark in 6th or 7th and slowly clawed my way back constantly fighting for clear air at the leeward mark rounding on the long beat back upwind. It was crucial to get a lane so you could climb- otherwise with the flood you had to just foot and go for speed while the inside boards climbed.
As it got lighter it was important to shift gears. I adapted a more upright stance with a fuller sail to get as much power as I could.
On the last upwind- Seth was out ahead as Ben had to double tack the previous windward mark Percy and Sylvester were sailing comfortably in 2nd and 3rd. Ben had some wicked speed the last upwind footing over Percy then ducking below Steve for a solid 2nd place finish. Meanwhile as Percy was gased from Ben's bad air I took advantage of it and climbed on him. By the layline we tacked together and were overlapped rounding the top mark. Percy was a bit sloppy on the rounding as he really had to pinch up to make it in the 2k flood. At the rounding- I dove deep and made by move. I got below Percy and drove deep the rest of the leg to finish 4th again behind Steve, Ben and Seth.
Its conservative sailing from now on as we've got only 1 throwout for the rest of the regatta.
Every point counts from now on.
The rest of the fleets forecast looks good with a building 15-25k breeze later in the week.
Stayed tuned with the results at http://2007uswnats.blogspot.com/
The archive section of the exploritorium web cam provides some good shots from todays racing,
Click here to watch it or go to http://cams.exploratorium.edu:8010/siteproxy.archive?doc=1&month=7&year=2007&day=7&camera=-1&alarm=0&schedule=0&preset=2&user=-1&periodic=0&custom=0&starthour=10&endhour=21&max=150&framerate=2&kind=1&getanim=Retrieve

no wind so cal

So I made another trip down to southern California for the SoCal Cup
but alas there was no wind- or not much of it compared to the summer we've been having in the SF Bay. I havn't had much success with sailing in Long Beach with last years Olympic pre trials and this years no wind calcup.
Makes me realize how good we have it in SF with a great organization and plenty of wind!
Nonetheless with just the slightest breeze near shore- we had to sail up to the breakwater- nearly 3 miles out to get to the wind-line with 11.0s.
There was plenty of motorboat chop in and out of the harbor and the moored freighters provide a bigger wind shadow than you would expect. I did get a chance to test out a new 70 cm soft fin and also got a chance to find out some light air settings on my 11.0 which I havn't sailed since May!
Some light air settings that I found useful were:
higher booms,
mast track back 2-3 cm,
outhaul on upper clew grommet,
longer harness lines ,
a forward raked fin,
as well as a really loose outhaul setting to get going when beginning to pump.

These are all things you can do before going out and on the water to get better low end from your kit. Of course having a broken batten doesn't help at all. After realizing this I came in and de rigged and watched a handful of so-cal sailors- along with Eric Christianson from the Bay area sail 2 laps around a set course in marginal conditions. Oh well- sometimes you've got to learn the lessons when you can!
Meanwhile back in SF, the kite fleet held their first national championships with 59 kiters racing 16 races over 3 days and a big air day and boarder cross on the w-end! Local crissy kiter Anthony Chavez took the honors while all around waterman- Seth Besse- placed a respectable 26th in the gold fleet. A complete report can be found here on Kimball's Sail magazine blog site.
Well at least nobdy was killed- a plus for the kiters in their 3rd season of kite racing on the Bay!Thanks to Chris Ray for the pics!
For results- check out the StFYC site or here
Also some great videos of the kiters in action at crissy during their nationals:

As well as the new all time record for hang time- nearly 12 seconds:


For more kiteboarding racing check out the video section at www.myhuck.com

With one more week before the US Nationals in SF, the pressure is on.
Several top notch sailors will be coming from around the US, South America and Europe.
Looks like the action will be in Formula and slalom but several RSX sailors will be there in preparation for next year Olympic games.
If you cant make it down to crissy field to watch- check out the action on the exploritorium web cam

Day 1-2 US Windsurfing Nationals, Maui HI, August 2006

Day 1-2

Greetings from the windy island of Maui!
The wind here has been excellent, providing ideal
conditions for the first 2 days of racing at the US
nationals. The race organizers decided to run slalom
right off the back as that’s what they're used to
running. The slalom fleets have been broken up into 8 age
groups with 10-15 sailors in each heat. Over the past
2 days we have ran 14 heats of slalom for each fleet-
making it really east to fall asleep at the end of the
day! In my class, the 19-34 year old men, we have some
real talent with Matt Pritchard, Seth Besse and some
impressive locals sailors taking the top of the pack
each race. I ve been a bit inconsistant with finishes
from 4th to last but more important, it's alot of fun
racing here. I come off the water with a smile on my
face after every race...something about racing in
boardshorts in great wind does that!
One thing noticable about this nationals is the local
spirit. It is more like a regonal event than a
national championships with lots of locals and
especially young kids. It's especially great to see
the younger kids here ripping around on the slalom
course. They are using 4.0- 5.0 small sails making it
look easy!

Next up today is the long distance race. Windsurfers
can't get on the water before 11 am and the wind has
been up up to 20+ before that, so its going to be an
interesting day on the water with perhaps more slalom
after the long distance racing.
To give you an idea of how windy its been, Ive been on
a 5.8 slalom and 29 cm fin fully lit up. My booms have
been slowing making their way down the cut out for
more control, as the well as a bit more downhaul each
race.
You can check out some video here:

http://mauiwind.blogspot.com/

I'll provide some more updates later in the week as we
do more racing.
Steve
USA 4

Day 5 Us Nationals. Maui

Most sailors found their way down to Kahana beach on Friday for the last day of racing with tired limbs and sore muscles, but behind it all were smiles on everybody's faces- knowing it couldn't get much better than this!

The RC waited till noon to start the racing as the water was still coming in and filling the shallows of Kahana reef. I hadn't managed to find any coral heads with my formula fin but then again I wasn't really looking to either. We set up for a start just off the beach with the RC calling the line from the comforts lawn chairs set in the sand. A windward mark was set inside the reef in the "shallower" water and then it was back down through the gate; a small reach across and below the infamous "Portuguese triangle"; then back upwind to a windward mark set outside the reef; back down to the reach mark; back up to windward mark 1; and finally downwind to a finish just off the beach. The formula class started first with the RSX sailors and the juniors for crowded line. It was Percy, Sylvester and myself all off the line on our 9.0's. I got a good start, knowing I had to win the 2 races today to take the series. I looked back and saw Sylvester catching up with better speed. We both tacked at the layline, with Percy just behind- taking a stumble through the breakers as we headed out. Knowing it was shallow in that area, we still forged ahead, both wanting to get to the windward mark first. Steve rounded just in front of me but I was able to go a bit deeper off the breeze and gain some distance before we had to gybe a the shore. I managed to stay out in front for the rest of the race with Steve nipping at my tail all the way to the finish. One race down and now I was just a ½ point behind Percy for first going into the last race. We had a bit of a break while the other fleet got off their race. It was really exciting to see the course slalom boards making their way around the course with tons of speed and position changes. At the top, it was Phil McGain, Matt Prtichard and Micah Buzianis with Seth and the hotshot locals following close behind. From the shore, I could see the breeze building. Neither Percy, Sylvester or myself wanted to be the first to chicken out and rig down, knowing that it might cost us the race if we sacrificed speed for control. Finally as we lined up for the second and final start, it was Sylvester who rigged down to a 7.2 slalom sail while Percy and I stayed on our 9.0's.

The starting line was again filled with a lot of junior sailor- who were legitimately racing amoung themselves- but to us were another obstacle to get around. Percy wasn't so lucky and got sandwiched and got off to a slow start while Sylvester and I got a clean start in the middle of the line. I had switched to my faster fin, knowing Steve had a bit of an advantage the previous race. We rounded the top mark together and made our way towards the bottom gate. I was able to go a bit deeper with the bigger sail but was slower in my transitions. At the gate, Steve had some control issues and I went to pass him to windward just at the mark. We crossed paths with a few of the course slalom sailors -who had just started and were making their way upwind but not quite with the same angles. I got squeezed out and had to foot off to clear my wind and Steve and Mike got a clear lane to windward of me and began to climb. We all overstood a bit and came into the top mark with speed with Sylvester rounding just in front of me and Percy a few boards behind. I managed to go a bit deeper than Steve off the breeze again and we gybed for the downwind mark overlapped with the petal to the metal. I didn't have enough speed to get below him so I let up a bit as we got closer to the mark so I could find a lane upwind if he let the door open at all with his rounding. I did manage to find a lane and climb on Sylvester upwind and get to the top mark in 1st with Percy in 3rd. It was just one more leg to the finish with Steve a few board lengths behind me. I went as deep as I could that leg and gybed at the layline seeing Steve behind me as I crossed the line to take the race and the regatta. Although the formula fleet was much smaller this year than previous' years, it was a good feeling to finally finish on top in a class I've been racing in for the past 4 years.

Meanwhile, in the bigger course slalom fleet, it was Phil McGain in 1st, Matt Pritchard in 2nd, Micah in 3rd and Seth finishing in 4th overall. It was a real treat to race in Maui for the nationals and I'm looking forward to coming back again. Next years nationals will be back in San Francisco at the St. Francis Y.C.