Spring Dinghy Recap!

[Ryan Nelson]

Hey Fleet!

Tim asked me to do the write up on last weekends Spring Dinghy Regatta, so here it goes!

If the weather reports earlier in the week scared you away from joining in on the fun, you missed out!

Saturday we were gifted a beautiful sunny day in the mid 60’s. 

Race 1 We had 9 boats on the line with a 6-8 knot southerly breeze. The fleet stayed with in boat lengths of each on the first leg with a lots of tacks and ducks only to see Howie and Jon bell work their light air mojo and sail away from the pack for the victory followed by Mike Punnett and Paul Von Grey. Mike and Adam rounded out the top three. 

Race 2 was held in a dying 6 knot southerly breeze. Mike and Adam worked their way through the fleet with Howie keeping the pressure on. On the second lap the wind started to fade and the top four boats managed to make it around the course while the rest struggled to drift across the finish line only to miss the time limit. Mike and Adam finished first followed by Howie and Jon and the Nic and his brother finished third. 

With all the conflicting weather forecasts the Saturday evening social was moved offsite to a local Mexican restaurant where the fleet was treated to a variety of tacos, burritos and the usual bar karate banter. Teams turned in early as the forecast for Sunday looked to be all on!

On Sunday we were dealt a cold blustery 50 degrees with potential for rain. The race committee bump the start time up by an hour to hopefully avoid the full brunt of the storm that was predicting winds in the 40’s later in the afternoon.

Race three was held in a choppy 12-14 knot southerly breeze. At the start the pin end was crowded and Mike and I got flushed and immediately did a clearing tack. When we flopped back over we locked into a good righty and crossed the whole fleet. It was short lived as Howie snuck in at the top mark with the other two Mike’s hot on our tail. Lots of puffs and shifts made for plenty of position changes throughout the fleet. Mike and Adam sailed around Howie for the win, Howie and Jon right behind him, Mike and PVG managed to get us on the short upwind to finish third.

Race four was a mixed bag. It started out 12-14 knots then on the second lap it was briefly sit running conditions. Lots of gear shifting and keeping your head on a swivel. Howie and Jon got the bullet, followed by Punnett and PVG and then Mike and Adam. 

Race five was started in building 18 knot breeze that eventually topped out in the low 30’s. Right at the start the breeze went right big time which saw most of the fleet starting on port at the pin end for a blast of a drag race. With the long fetch from Redwood City the waves built which made for some challenging upwinds and some fun surfing downwind. There were capsizes all over the course (mostly Mike and I). Mike and Adam did their heavy air thing and pulled away for the win, with Howie in hot pursuit for second, Punnett and PVG in Third.

Final Scores:

(1st) Howie and Jon 

(2nd) Mike and Adam 

(3rd) Punnett and Paul 

(4th) Jack and Nathan 

(5th) Ryan and Mike 

(6th) Christian and Bjorn

(7th) Nic and Brother

(8th) Ian

(9th) Andrea and Joby

Shout Outs!

-Thanks you to Mike Punnett and PVG for traveling the furthest to make it to the event. The additional Mike meant that this counted as an official 5o5 regatta as we met our “Mike” quota! 3 Mikes! As well it was great seeing you guys pushing Mike and Howie.

-The Aussie and Canadian Team of Jack and Nathan were consistently finding themselves pressuring the lead group the whole weekend, stoked to see them progressing!

-Ian showed us that time in the boat is paying off and he was going pretty quick in the light stuff on Saturday.

-It was great seeing Nic out there with his brother, bummed for you guys that they had a breakdown and missed out on Sundays fun.

-Happy to see Christian out there with Bjorn on the Green Boat. Love seeing boats in new hands and active in the fleet again, as well they were going fast and pushing Mike and I!

-Andrea and Joby in the fleet boat pushing it hard was great to see. Once they get through the teaching issues of an older boat they will be a force out there. As well I’m stoked to see a local Junior sailor out there on the wire. Need to get Joby and some of his friends out on other boats. 

-Mike, Howie, Adam and Jon I truly appreciate you guys coming to these events, sharing your knowledge and showing how its done. I will never tire of watching your guys speed and skills as you plane away from me. 

-My Mike, thanks for hanging in their with me and thanks for being an animal on the wire!

-It was super cool to se our fleet along with the ILCA’s work together to help each other pull boats out in the crazy conditions at the ramp. 

-Thanks to Aland Prussia at RONSTAN for providing the Bad Ass Trophy/Giveaways!!!

-Finally to my race committee, could not have pulled off this challenging event with out you guys! Thank you!

It was great to sail in some challenging conditions with a great fleet. Looking forward to the next event in Santa Cruz!

Ryan Nelson

Team Rogue Rigging 8680

Link to my video from the event:

https://youtu.be/YbiDiQITNXk?si=rs_sUPjJKfBa9n-u

[Ole Eichhorn]

Thanks for the detailed report, much appreciated.  There has been an interesting thread on Scuttlebutt about what makes a fleet last a long time - obviously the 505s are in the conversation! - and recognition and support for the bottom part of the fleet is a key element.

Cheers

[Blaine Pedlow]

Ah man! Wish I was there. Thanks for the great recap, Ryan.

Blaine

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "505 USA West Coast" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 505-usa-west-co...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/505-usa-west-coast/773E4B41-6927-408B-9168-CE0E9A3E0439%40gmail.com.

[Ian O’Leary]

Thanks goes out to the race committee and all the team at the Alameda community sailing center for a great venue last week. Thank you to the race committee and all that helped out who teamO’Leary. Nice write up Ryan see you  Santacruze I hope

Ian O’Leary 

O'Leary Construction.

On Mar 23, 2025, at 9:44 pm, Blaine Pedlow <bpe...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/505-usa-west-coast/CAFSvke5UUanjbuVjA%3DWSBbG5jPfS-ZeXXpHtex7%2ByJsSuQnQnQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nathan de Vries]

Team Boogie had a blast, thanks for organizing and the great write-up. Looking forward to the rest of the season!

Cheers,

Nathan

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/505-usa-west-coast/7158B2D5-B717-46A0-9084-2A5B7A59ECFA%40ianolearyconstruction.com.