After weeks of training I finally raced in the Harken Opti Heavy Weather Regatta, which happens at the
St Francis Yacht Club, just by the Golden Gate Bridge. This regatta was really special because of the fact that their were about 50 Optis!! They came from the SF Bay, Vancouver Canada, Seattle, and Long beach California. I didn't do really well ranking-wise, but I had a good time. I was happy to race in the practice day, because otherwise I would not have been prepared. To give you an idea of what happened on the practice day, basically I capzised 6 times!! In one race!! After that I didn't capzise until after the last race, and indeed I pitchpoled. Which means that the front of my boat went under water, until the top of my mast touched the water where then I flipped. Here is the
video of a Weta trimaran pitchpole.
At the Heavy Weather Regatta, the wind was 15 to 20 knots 4 days in a row!! The current
was also strong (3 to 4 knots), the whole time it was flooding, which
means that the tide was coming into the Bay. So on the upwinds you would
go at 3 knots against the current, but on the downwinds you would go around 6 to 9 knots. The
worst of all were the waves: on each wave you would take 5 liters into
the boat upwind. The great parts were the downwinds, and my top speed was up to 11knots. Here is a short
video.
Overall I finished 12 in Blue fleet (my age group) on 25 boats.
Overall I had a great time! Next year I will be back.
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