Berkeley Circle

After a week of racing the new resin infused Rocket 22 at Whidbey, it was time to really put her through her paces and what better place than on the Berkeley Circle. The Berkeley Circle is a group of 8 bouys placed in a circular fashion (points on a compass) with x mark(start mark) at the hub of the wheel. No matter what direction the wind is blowing there will always be a windward/leeward/reach mark set. These are not the property of one club so that on any given day or evening one of the many clubs in the Bay area will have a race going on. In the summer, when a high pressure is firmly entrenched over the Northern California coast, the sun warms up the Sacramento Valley. The warm air rises and it sucks the cool ocean air in to replace it. The wild card to how strong it blows is the morning fog. If there isn't very much fog in the morning or it burns off quickly, watch out, its going to "blow the dog off the chain"!

Our gracious host for the next five days was Anthony, the owner of OCSC, the largest sailing school in the Bay area. I can't thank you enough Anthony, for opening up your phenomenal facilities for us to use.

We (my son and I) rigged and launched the Rocket and prepared her for the Berkeley Yacht Club Friday night race. My son took one look at the 25kts and said "find another crew" so I walked the OCSC docks and threw out the invitation. Immediately Jimmy, one of the maintenance guys, jumped up and volunteered and said he had a friend, Meredith, that would like to come. At the same time I got a message from a local hotshot Dominique that I met and sailed with at the Oakland boat show and he was up for the race . Alright!! We are ready to race!
Remember, this is a brand new boat that has never seen anything over 12kts. I had visions of disaster running through my head. We arrived at the line and in a blur were off. Thanks to the internet a Megles 24 got wind that we were going to race and showed up from Richmond.

Our fleet consisted of a couple of OCSC Ultimate 24s, a few J24s (one of which was very well sailed) the Melges and us. It quickly became a three boat race. The first beat we played around with the barberhaulers and the jib tracks and did our best to stay with the Melges. The first run was uneventful. The next beat Dominique had got the boat nicely dialed in and we felt that the Rocket started to settle in and go fast. For the final run, all the gloves were off and up went the asso. Next thing we new we were on a screaming broad reach with the Melges close on our heels! This was great, exchanging gybes to the finish and not giving an inch! Now came the tricky part, the finish was inside the breakwater at the entrance of this huge, super busy marina. At the last minute I chickened out and took the chute down and let the Melges beat us across the line by 15-20 sec. I couldn't help but think back, as I watched the Melges doing 13+kts into the entrance and remembered the grief I got three weeks earlier for coming into the Penticton Marina with my main up while under power. The J 24 corrected over us but it was a great boost to know that the Rocket can live quite happily and thrive on the Berkeley Circle!