what a great event, all the way from the organization to the challenging but fantastic conditions. St. Francis Yacht Club is the most wonderful host we could ask for, with facilities and equipment that made courses and race direction seem easy. The tight gbroup of crew made it possible to have course races and good slalom courses work smoothly on the same day and all the good wind was never wasted. There was even a great demonstratrion of Freestyle that eventually became scored and gave us winners and more.
Phil was totally on his A-game and sailed like a young fella, especially commanding in the long distance race. He always had plenty of speed and angle going up wind which is especially good to see from my point of view. racing is always racin g, so speed isn't everything, butg when you have it, it gives you tactical choices you might not otherwise find.
of course San Francisco gave us winter time temps on most of the days so the cold added to the difficulty of staying on focus for everyone, but the locals said it was just normal.
It was good to see Andy Brabdt do his winning thing in freestyle on his new Locos, Ingrid LaRouche winning women's slalom on a Switch, blazing the other ladies. Jordan Reid won the Jr Slalom on his new TR-5, and Bryan Matcalf-Perez got to try out a TR-6 on loan from Casey Hauser to help him into second in the Yellow Fleet.
Today I'm headed for Cal Sailing Club to do a rigging clinic in the morning and spread the word about going fast and having fun.
OH yeah... Phil was THE man all round, winning the whole show through totally consistent performance. Great work and so good to see him get fired up like that.
aloha
barry
