Santa Cruz "Weta Kickoff"

July 25th, 2017

Since everyone else is getting ready or already heading to the Gorge for the Weta Nationals, I thought I’d write up the Santa Cruz Weta Kickoff (okay, Hobie Kickoff, but we were a sizable fleet) which took place last weekend. I promise not to use any dog, cat or donuts raining from the sky references.

One week prior to the event, the race area, which lies (or lay) within the red triangle, was closed due to a Great White chomping. Great Whites were indeed, chomping on kayaks and paddleboarders up and down the coast of California. If one wanted to clear the beach, all they would have to yell was, “Hey look! There’s Mick Fanning!” Google if you don’t get the reference. Hopefully, the sharks would not mistake Fleming for Fanning. Yet, once the start gun sounded, all thoughts were off sea monsters and on to tactics and laylines.

Historically, the event has been a windy, full ama hiking survival for the fittest. This year offered none of the kind. However, the lighter winds made up for it with some tight racing – as in close. There might have been some Hemingway style tight drinking at the bbq later that night, but all in all, positions were rewritten around every mark. It was a scrabbled game of constant trimming, surfing, and concentration.

The first race was dominated by Marc Simmel, fresh off his World Master Game’s experience, proving my little speech was correct, that “There is time in the water, and then time in regatta.” You can guess which works better. So there was Marc, showing off his newly found form and brand new sails. Then Bruce Fleming proved in Race 2 that new sails ain’t no thang. In the third race, the fog rolled in. Simmel was far behind in this race. Bruce led us again… to the wrong mark. It was the further out Hobie 20 orange mark, not the yellow one for us Weta fellers, but who could tell the difference in the fog? As the lead group of us searched for the finish line, and tried to not taste like chicken, it became anyone’s game. Back at the dock, Marc revealed that he had won the race. It helps when your name is Marc. Rhymes with shark.

Sunday offered up another beast of a challenge, and again, it was not the wind. Mid launch on the Santa Cruz YC lift, Christophe Allie’s boat was left hanging. The crane broke with the boat wafting ten feet above the water, perhaps as bait? This created a mingling of the engineering minds, with the best solution coming from the movie, Jaws. Just launch a gas canister and blow the fish up! Or in this case, blow it down. But less reasonable ideas surfaced, and after freedom to the Weta, the ramp option was used to make it out to the race course.

It took a while to get things rolling, with watching paint dry light air conditions. Marc took out the first two races, with Berntsen right behind. Bruce, who typically does worse on Sundays after staying with in-laws, continued along that path, even allowing the donut to pass him up in a couple of races at the end (oops, a donut reference, but as a human noun). Christophe took up the slack for a third and second in the grand finale, a shortened course after the wind punked out completely. Davo won that race, and will store that one in the memory bank for the week to come.

Ben Tettelbaum, with master mind crew, Karen Cohen, swept the double-handed division. Most thankful to be racing with us was Gordon Lyon, who took a break from putting out fires at work, to John Rizzi, who took a break from fighting real fires.

Results here: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/14802#_newsroom 

By Jonathan Weston

Photos Christoph Allie 

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