Cal Team Race 2016
On February 27-28 the Tritons Sailing team competed in the annual Cal Team Race hosted by Berkeley Sailing on Treasure Island. The format was 3v3 team racing, an intense change from normal fleet racing. Gentle winds delayed the start of racing on Saturday, but once the western Bay Area wind filled in the racing was nonstop. The wind built throughout the day to a nice fresh breeze, but never became uncontrollable. With rolling starts 26 races were finished by the end of the day, completing two and a half round robins. Before the wind filled in on Sunday the Berkeley coach gave a chalk talk to all the competitors aimed at increasing the tactical strategy level out on the race course. As a sort of learning event, Cal Team Race is a great regatta for those less familiar with the head to head strategies of team racing. Sunday saw a long postponement due to more light morning winds, even after the chalk talk. The wind eventually filled in from the west, albeit still lightly. The light conditions were more familiar to a team that practices on Mission Bay. All around it was a great learning experience and much improvement on tactics like mark traps and pass backs was seen from all the teams by the end of the regatta. After finishing 4 complete round robins, the UC San Diego team came out with a 3rd place finish. Congratulations to Cal who took home the win at their own event.
