St. Francis Interconference Regatta: April 2nd and 3rd
The Stanford Sailing Team hosted the St. Francis Interconference Regatta on the weekend of April 2nd and 3rd, 2016 at the St. Francis Yacht Club in the Marina district of San Francisco. It featured amenities abound, with shower, steam, and sauna rooms (separate). The sailing location, and its proximity to the Golden Gate Bridge, led to not only a picturesque view of the bridge and Alcatraz Island, but also challenging conditions due to the current going under the bridge and the general waves in the area.
18 colleges from all over the West Coast came to this event, with attendees from as far as the Western Washington University. Races began on the first day at 11:00 AM. With uncharacteristically moderate winds, the course started out with an ebb current coming down on the course and a heavily favored right side on a long course. The race committee was aiming for 18 minute races, but after a 30 minute first race, they soon shortened the course – a first of many course alterations. As the day went on, the wind picked up and the flood current came in, which led to a starboard-rounded windward mark to facilitate the trend of boats keeping to the left side of the course. The increased wind speed also saw a few capsizes. For a while, one boat actually sat turtled at the start line until Jake Zarraonandia from UCI and a race committee member jumped in to right it. A-division and B-division both finished seven races in an exciting day of sailing. After the races, the competitors were provided with chips and dip by the regatta hosts.
The second day of sailing began at 10:00 AM with heavier winds and colder weather. A similar trend in weather occurred, which led to starboard roundings of the windward mark later on in the day. One new factor was the presence of much larger waves, which led to a greater separation of the fleet between the boats that understood how to handle the waves, and those that did not. To counteract the colder weather, some teams brought out barbequing equipment. Hot dogs and other grilled foods became a commonly seen item around the viewing area. The last start was planned for 3:00 PM to allow schools with long drives to get an early start heading back. 13 races were sailed for each division in total, with A and B-division finishing 6 races on the second day. Overall with the two division scores combined, Tritons finished in 17th. Congratulations to UCSB for taking home the win!
