Bays Regatta at Encinal Yacht Club

The Bays are a serie of regattas in different yacht clubs of the Bay area. This particular one that I went to was at Encinal Yacht Club close to Alameda and Oakland on Feb 14&15th. The races were pretty challenging, because the channel where we were racing was quite small. Overall I got 8th on 23 and in my "Blue" fleet I got 5th.  Knowing that last year I was in "Green" fleet and I got 4th. Here is a short video.

Here are some pictures:

Winning the Midwinters regatta

Remember how I published a post on the Midwinters? If you don't, here is the link.
Well yesterday was the last day. And I won the Champion Fleet!!! The funny part was that everybody had the same results at each race. I got 2nd at every of the 3 races. I was so happy to win because last year I got 2nd in Green Fleet. Last year I got a trophy for the 2nd place but this year I got a really cool knife.

Here is a picture of my knife:

PS: did you notice the picture of me sailing ? If you feel scared, you have to know that this picture is an art piece by my friend Frank Roesner. Here is the address of his website.

Here is a bunch of pictures of the last regatta:

Differences between French and Americans buoys

In France we say "rouge sur rouge, rien ne bouge" which means that when you're going in the harbor you have to leave the red buoys on port, meaning on the left side of your boat, where your lights are red. In the US it is the opposite !

Dunes VIII

Do you remember how I tested an Open 5.70? Well our family welcomed one early January: she is called Dunes VIII.

The first time I went sailing on her, my whole family was with me. Here is a short video of us. When we went sailing, the wind was around 10-15 knots. But it was not a issue because we were 5 people on a boat for 3 people.

The second time, I went with a friend and my Dad. Sailing next to us was Fred, who got my Mom and myself testing the boat last December. He was faster although solo. We have a lot to learn! Here are some pictures of my friend and I

                     

Here is a short video of my friend and I with my Dad.

  

The third time, with the whole family the current was very strong: it was about 3knts for 10 knts of wind. So you can imagine going up the current. It took us 1h30min to get along Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.

The fourth time, we went sailing again, but this time my sister wasn't here, as she was racing for High School Sailing at Treasure Island. The wind was low when we rigged, and then it went high in about 1 or 2 min (around 15knts). I was at the helm during the whole session. Too bad that the GPS didn't work, as i'm sure we were faster than 11 knots, which my previous record. Then we decided to go back to the port and entered it sailing. Here is a short video.

The boat is in dry storage so to put it in the water you need to use a hoist. But to bring it to the hoist you need a little electric car. When the boat is not getting towed by the car I get to drive it. Here is a picture:

I think the boat is awesome. I'm looking forward to sailing again on her.