2007 Big Daddy

We had 10 U20's this weekend at RYC's Big Daddy race held on the San
Francisco Bay. They had around 150 boats total on three courses. We
were on the South Hampton course which is between Berkeley and Angel
Island. The wind was light for the most part on Saturday we had the
OD fleet racing. The first race Cloud Nine, Ricochet, UFO and Salsa
ended up close and were duking it out on the upwind leg till Jim on
cloudnine with his hardcore crew found a wind shift and just took
off. Leaving Geoff to hold his ground and follow Cloud Nine around
the course. UFO, Salsa, Enigma, Layla, Mojo and Cinderella Story were
all close and duking it out pretty good with Too Tuff and BreakAway
going head to head all the way to the finish.

The 2nd race we had a huge wind shift and total wind failure at the
comittee boat end which created a reach to the first mark and the 2nd
mark. UFO ended up being one of the last boats off the line we
managed to work through 4 boats for a 6th place by the time we
reached the finish line. The only boats to luck out happend to be at
the pin end and had wind to get moving for that start.

3rd race they reset the course squared it up. I was so focused on
going fast I didn't look around much. But I can tell you we crossed
with Salsa a couple of times, Too Tuff was close by at one point and
every time I looked around Engima was right there along with Layla
Tom's new boat. The roundings were crowded and at times we ended up
rounding with O25's which didn't make it any fun or easier.

I only can tell you our roundings on UFO we held the kite all the
way - my crew started saying - we are taking it all the way to the
wall! All the leward roundings we were still dousing the kite down
out of the rigging while I was in up wind mode! We had a close call
with Enigma -- they on port us on Starboard. I saw them thought this
will be close, called starboard -- then thought shoot they have us
then thought Oh boy they don't see us and they aren't crossing- I
feathered a little to slow us then crash tacked John was cool and
bailed out we were close but no biggie and John told me later he was
sorry and totally missed seeing us. I didn't even say anything out on
the water John and Dave bailed out and did their turns. No big deal.
Nothing like good close U20 OD racing.

Tom on his new Lalya kept hooking up on the down wind legs and really
moving out. So out last down wind leg we had a bullseye painted on
the back of Tom's boat we managed to out plain him just enough to get
the upper hand and caught him on the 2nd to last gybe to the finish.
We crossed starboard vs port both on full plain so close my crew
trimming said what was that then saw Lalya and said damn thats as
close as ever want to cross anyone going that fast! Tom had a big
smile on his face loving every minute of it.

Story by Trent Watkins