RegattaPRO’s Jeff Zarwell files this report:

On Saturday, RegattaPRO held its fourth annual Winter One Design Regatta. A total of 58 boats entered, not all of which were able to make it for the first day.

We had an unusual day with lots of cloud cover, but not rain. So much for washing the salt off sails. The breeze bounced around quite a bit, with an average coming from 210 at 8-10 knots.

We were just west of the circle, staying away from the Berkeley YC fleets, which put our leeward start/finish line between "E" and "F" buoys and heading SSW to the channel. Two weather marks were set, one at 1.25 NM and the other at 1.00 NM and one leeward mark about 100 meters above the start/finish lines. J/120s, J/105s and the Melges fleet took the upper windward mark, while the Express 27s and J24s took the lower windward mark.

With the large disparity in fleet sizes (ranging from 14 J/105s and E27s to five Melges 24s on the course) we decided to adjust the start line so that no fleet had a line too short or too long. Because of this, I brought onboard Mark Mayer, Dockmaster of St. Francis YC, to operate a second mark boat. Mark's help enabled me to make line adjustments much faster than I could do myself.  

We were able to complete two races per fleet and with all those J/105s we were happy to see no red flags on the course.

There's been talk of an IRC fleet wanting to join us, so we'll see what happens next month!

- Jeff Zarwell, National Race Officer

For more on these races, see our previous item, featuring Laura Watt’s photos and observations from the vantage point of an Express 27. For complete results and more, see www.regattapro.com/regattas.html.