2010 Master Mariners Regatta
By: Brock de Lappe (Crew USA-15)
Posted: June 1, 2009
Folkboats Take 2nd & 3rd in Division
Final Results
Two wooden San Francisco Bay Folkboats entered this year’s Master Mariner Regatta held Saturday, May 29th. The fleet of classic boats was blessed with gorgeous weather with clear sky, bright sun, 18-22 knots of wind and a generally helpful 3.9 knot flood tide. Roger Rapp’s USA-15 Kaeresta, and Terri Watson and Kimi Harrison’s USA-95 Folksong, represented our class admirably, scoring 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the Marconi 4 division. Starts were staggered at 5 minute intervals between noon and 1:00 PM. Our two Folkboats were joined at the line with two of the largest schooners in the race, Brigadoon and Yankee. Folksong won the start and fortunately both schooners passed to leeward on the way north across the bay to the Little Harding mark. We then beat to weather toward Yellow Bluff, looking for relief from the flood tide. In retrospect, a critical decision was when to make the beat back across the Gate to round the Blackaller buoy (16). USA-95 decided to work to weather on the north side of the Gate, while Roger in USA-15, headed across the Bay earlier and worked to weather off Crissy Field. Roger’s choice paid off and he round 16 a couple of minutes ahead to USA-95 to begin the long downwind run to Blossom Rock. From there it was a reach north to 6, followed by another reach back to finish off the eastern side of Treasure Island near the new Bay Bridge. USA-95 progressively gained during the final two reaches, closing to finish approximately 54 seconds behind Roger. A post race party was held at the Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda, with many of the competitors rafting up in front of the club. A fleet of inflatables was used as mini-tugboats to help raft up these vintages vessels stern-to in front of the club. Peter Miller, a regular crew for Mike Goebel on USA-109, scored a first place finish in the Bear division with Kodiak. It is hoped that next year we can field five Folkboat entrants so that we will have our own class start. More information about the regatta can be found here: http://www.mastermariners.org/
A video of still shots can be found here:
While I wore my helmet camera, I didn’t discover until I got home that I had failed to load my memory card. Doh!