I spoke with Uncle Joe back in March about this posting. After a few adult drinks, he sort of went along with the idea. This is really the celebration of the friendships we have formed in the EC12 class rather than the hyping of another class.

Our Santa Barbara field trip this year is to San Francisco, Spreckels Lake for the NCR to be exact. Tom Germer has joined in the stupidity of this journey along with last year's participants: Rick West, Dave Ramos, Ken Shaw and me. We had a few additional interested parties. But, real life sometimes gets in the way of toy boats.

Our boats are already in San Fran. Tom sent his to his brother's house while we shipped ours via Forward Air to their depot in Brisbane, CA. Rick and I picked up the 317lb box last Monday with no problem. It's quite a sight to see a pro use a forklift to place that box inside Rick's Yukon. The box made it coast to coast in four days and didn't get lost in Los Angeles this year.

The box fits in the vehicle, but we couldn't latch the back hatch. We set off the Rick's house after placing a handful of rubber straps to hold the hatch shut. Now that arrangement worked fine on the highway. But, Rick's road is just short of vertical. I had this picture in my mind of us hitting a bump and having the box slide out the back doing it's best impression of the Jamaican bob sled team all the way down Dardenelle Avenue. Thankfully, my fears were not realized and the box arrived safe and sound in his car port.

I'll be heading back to SF next week with the rest of the gang. The regatta is on 9/10 & 9/11, which is a Tuesday and Wednesday. My guess is there will be plenty of breeze at Spreckels Lake, but it will be whirly and swirly through the trees. At last count, there were 24 boats registered, which is huge for the S/B's.

We have an extra bedroom in our house if anybody wants to come hang out. There is apparently a little something happening in the bay with some kick ass catamarans.

We had our practice day at Spreckles Lake today. It was a wonderful group of people sailing in the neighborhood of 15 boats. We were dealing with the same fog that you see covering the Americas Cup course. It's a unique experience to literally see the wind shifts in the fog. It was thick enough to mute the colors of the boats at times.

There was plenty of breeze and it does whirl and swirl as expected. Our group all were pleased with boat speed. We'll find out tomorrow how good we are at reacting to the shifts. Our practice at Stowe should prove helpful.

The boats are all stored fully rigged in the SFMYC clubhouse at the end of the lake. They have a real sweet setup there.

Racing report will follow tomorrow. Racing goes from 11-5 both days.

Pictures from the nationals posted to RC Groups. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1994881

Ok here we go
Weather is beautiful and the wind is gusty and shifty.
We have been warmly welcomed by the west coast sailors.
So far we have
D Ramos 1,3,3
Rick west 2,1,1 go Poobah
D Brawner 2,2,1
Ken 7,6,4
Tom Germer 3,6,3
So far we have seen big holes, puffs that put the boats on a surf,
45 degree wind shifts that cause you to drop boats or gain.
Lots and lots of fun

Race 4A
Ramos 1
West 2
Brawner 3
Tom 6
Race 4B with Ken just about to start

Ken in race 4B first
Race 5a
Brawner 1st
Ramos 2nd
Ken 5th
Race 5B with Rick West just starting now

Poobah (R West)with another bullet in race 5B

Are they sailing a matrix!?!

Go "Team Twelve"!!!

Today was an absolutely great day on the water. The Poobah is the golden boy of our gang with three bullets, two seconds, a fourth and a dns(throw out). Dave and I each have three bullets and Ken Shaw has one. Tom Germer was right near the top on several occasions.

They are running this using odd/even system. What was that I just heard. Oh, it was all of Florida groaning. While I am not a fan of that system, it seems to work fine here this week.

We used a long windward leeward course varying between one and two laps. Spreckels lake makes you work for everything. The other side of the equation is that you can win from anywhere on the course if you have the patience to assemble a series of good shifts.

While the top mark was light and fluky, the bottom marks proved to be where the excitement was. Ken Campbell had his boat planing the last 50 yards to the leeward mark. This boat was moving faster than any boat that I have ever seen. Making the turn at full speed was an amazing skillful maneuver. The crew was holding on for dear life.

Haven't seen the scoreboard, but there should be five of us within a few points of each other. We'll see what happen tomorrow.

Sounds like a close bunch at the top! Hope you good final day.

Sail fast, Jamey
#34

Correction to my earlier statement....while it is correct that the top five are within a few points, it would be more accurate to say that they are within just one point!

Ken Campbell from San Diego and Ryan from San Francisco join Rick, Dave and me in the top five. Tomorrow should be interesting to say the least.

On a side note, my wife Lisa and Ken Shaw took a trip down to Americas Cup park while I picked up Karen and Dave Ramos at the airport. Here is Kens photo link. Enjoy.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111167225028431887849/SBNats2013

Wow...some great pictures. You got close to the action. The sequence seems to go....a few boats...then some girls....a few boats....then some girls. Thanks, Ken. Keep up the sharp eye. Good luck you EC12 guys....sounds like a really fun experience.

Great pictures Ken!!
I agree with Dave Branning about the sequence.

Oh what fun we had. All five of us ended up winning a heat today. Tom Germer broke his maiden today with a win early on. The racing was simply awesome both days.

Final results:
1 Ken Campbell 24
2 Ryan Scholfield 25
3 David Ramos 26
4 David Brawner 27
5 Rick West 33
6 Ken Shaw 41
7 Tom Germer 56

It all came down to the last race. Can't get much more exciting than that.

Ken Morrison spent the day at the pond with us today. Tomorrow we are off to Alcatraz for a tour just about the time of the Americas Cup start. Hopefully, we'll catch the race from Al Capones cell.

A serious highlight of our trip was an EC 12 dinner at Rick and Merrilee's house in Pacifica. Ken Morrison, Tom Germer and our gang were treated to deep fried turkey and plenty of laughter.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the professional job done by the race committee led by John Super and the entire San Francisco model yacht club.

This has been a great road trip. Our next big adventure will be the EC12 NCR.