After six years of racing at the Fresno Yacht Club's High Sierra regatta on Huntington Lake, KUDZU finally pulls it off and wins in PHRF C (190+ rating) against a mixed fleet of three Santana 22s, Coronado 25, Holder 20, Hunter 216 and Catalina 22. We've been as high as third before (2008 and 2012) and as low as seventh in a fleet of 10-15 boats, but this year we managed to win the three races by using our 135% instead of the usual 155% genoa. High altitude breezes at 7,000 this year were between 8 and 12 mph with the random gusts to 18 or 20, hence the smaller headsail choice.
Saturday saw white caps on the lake for both races and we were bobbing through chop upwind, wetting the foredeck and surfing some of the 'waves' downwind, hitting 8+ mph on a couple occasions downwind and averaging between 6 and 7 mph upwind. Fun times for the three of us that have taken this 6 hour trip south each year. We may have finally started to figure out this lake's wind patterns.
The Holder 20 was around us all the time - maybe a bit faster upwind but we passed them on each downwind leg, finishing boat-for-boat ahead of the faster rated Holder (192 to my Capri 22 NorCal PHRF 204 certificate number). The Coronado 25 was second (PHRF 228) and the Catalina 22 (PHRF 270) took third although we hardly saw them on the race course, but we owed them nearly 8 minutes on the 90+ minute 7.1 mile courses. We were fouled at the start line by the Hunter that T-boned us with 30 seconds to go to the start. They did their 720 on the course later, but that didn't get us back to the place we wanted to be on the start line at the gun or get us our lost minute crossing the start line! We still managed to eventually catch and pass everyone by the final of the six legs and just barely corrected for three bullets in three long races.
Jerry
1985 Capri 22 #155 "Kudzu"
standard rig, fin keel
Saturday saw white caps on the lake for both races and we were bobbing through chop upwind, wetting the foredeck and surfing some of the 'waves' downwind, hitting 8+ mph on a couple occasions downwind and averaging between 6 and 7 mph upwind. Fun times for the three of us that have taken this 6 hour trip south each year. We may have finally started to figure out this lake's wind patterns.
The Holder 20 was around us all the time - maybe a bit faster upwind but we passed them on each downwind leg, finishing boat-for-boat ahead of the faster rated Holder (192 to my Capri 22 NorCal PHRF 204 certificate number). The Coronado 25 was second (PHRF 228) and the Catalina 22 (PHRF 270) took third although we hardly saw them on the race course, but we owed them nearly 8 minutes on the 90+ minute 7.1 mile courses. We were fouled at the start line by the Hunter that T-boned us with 30 seconds to go to the start. They did their 720 on the course later, but that didn't get us back to the place we wanted to be on the start line at the gun or get us our lost minute crossing the start line! We still managed to eventually catch and pass everyone by the final of the six legs and just barely corrected for three bullets in three long races.
Jerry
1985 Capri 22 #155 "Kudzu"
standard rig, fin keel