Soup Road Trip Report

The Soup is out of town (currently sitting out in a tree farm East of Seattle), but this is a fleet championship counter as well, so hopefully some decent turnout, and in a format we wanted to support. (Bummer for us!) Quick road trip report. J-Fest had record turnout with 60+ J-boats, and a decent/competitive 11 boat J24 fleet. Light winds on Saturday had the long light race abandoned as we reached the last leeward mark, which was too bad as we were in 2nd at the time, although it was a bit of a crap shoot in dead breeze as boats drifted past/around each other. Sunday had light breeze in AM, building all day, but never more than ~10-12. Lots of flood current made for a tricky start line, and tight windward mark roundings against the current (opposite of what we practice!). Given the flood banging the shore for relief was the call, then down the middle on the run. Starts were key to get to the favored side, and having to bail out of the windward mark rounding given the current in the 2nd race was tough. Had a 2nd, 5th, and 6th, for a respectable 4th place overall, in a tough/tight fleet, although missing some of the usual Seattle suspects.

Results if curious:

http://www.sailingsource.com/cyc/2008_specific/jfest.html

Some pics if even more curious (J24s on page 14):

http://lbuchholz.smugmug.com/gallery/5182917_stsc8/

FYI, the targeted races current standings for overall, and Thursdays are up on the web, although I noticed I didn’t push out the version with the PYC results (will do that tonight).

In addition to Thursdays, next targeted one is Goldrush! J And start penciling the Columbia Gorge One Design (CGOD) for the first weekend in August for your summer plans. Heading up/down by river is defiantly an option (and the Soup’s plan), but will have a hoist there as well. Hoping to get the class scale to do some weighing. Hoping we can get some boats on the road (or river)!