Friday Night Formula Racing St FYC September 10th

[bil7y]

Much like the Kiteboards the day before the Friday Night Windsurfing fleet, 14 racers strong, were treated to spectacular racing conditions this past September 10th. With no fog in sight and 68 degree 18-23 mph winds flowing through the Golden Gate it was time for racing.(pictured Al Mirel)

With the Jim Kiriakis at the helm and Marion Lepert doing all the work the race committee called for a race one Course A (simple windward leeward). With a big 3 knot ebb going the opposite direction of the wind calling the right lay line to the weather mark was critical. Off the starting line it was Seth Besse scorching up wind with the F4 Fins Team of Al Mirel, Chris Radkowski stalking him from behind. The top 3 raced down the inside shoreline after the windward mark while I threw my jibe first to go back outside. While getting back out to the ebb did not seem like the right call it was significantly windier outside and it turned out to be a good call. I was able to pass Radkowski and Mirel and pick up serious ground on Besse. As we rounded the leeward mark it was Besse out front and heading for the seawall. Mirel and I tacked early and were rewarded handsomely with fresher breeze and the ebb tide tractor beaming us to the finish. Mirel tacked just as I did and then proceeded to put the hammer down edging me out by literally the nose of his board at the line. Besse had to settle for third and little lesson about the wind conditions inside.(pictured Jack Lundquist prepares for battle)

Race two got underway and Besse was out for revenge. With course B calling for the inside reaching mark to come in to play Seth again got out to an early lead. One he would not relinquish. Eric Christianson and Al Mirel were both in the hunt but Besse learned from his race one mistake and called finish line lay line perfectly this time. Mirel took second while Christianson came in third.

The third race again saw Besse get out to the early lead. This race resembled a bit of a parade with Besse holding the baton out front. Besse had about a 50 yard lead on me with Mirel tracking us down from behind. As we rounded the leeward mark Besse tacked too aggressively this time and under stood the finish line giving me a shot to get him. Posting a flawless tack however he was able to make the line and take the win. I was in second with Mirel in Third.(pictured below Chris Radkowski)

Race 4 saw a cluster of boards crowding the pin end of the line. With so many boards in such a small place someone was not going to be happy. That someone was Seth Besse who was felled by another board and sent in to the drink. Eric Christianson in the meantime nailed the start and lead wire to wire around the course. I was only about 30 feet behind Christianson at the leeward mark with Mirel about 100 feet behind me. As Christianson flopped over to go for the line visions of Besse under-standing the finish line in race 3 were dancing in my head so I pressed on to the sea wall. And it was a horrible tactical call on my part. Mirel tacked over early and simply crushed me not only making up the deficit but beating me by more than 150 ft on what is a very short leg of the course. Christianson posted his best race of the night to take the bullet.

Race 5 saw Tom Purcell follow a near perfect start with a near perfect lay line to the weather mark to lead the fleet. I was only about 10 feet behind Purcell at the rounding but chose to jibe out immediately while Purcell sailed on. With the luck of the puff I was able to exit the very light inside with a relatively large lead as we headed to the leeward mark. I grossly over-stood the leeward mark and quickly gave up all my lead as both Besse and Mirel both of whom called much better lay lines. The one benefit of over-standing however is power on tap and knowing this was the last race I gave it my all to get to the mark first and was lucky to do just that. I held on for the win with Mirel in second and Besse in third.

It was a night of incredibly tight racing with Mirel taking the day by a single point. Besse took second by way of the tie breaker over me. The fleet however was missing top gun Steve Bodner who has the season series pretty much in the bag. Steve is nursing a bad back and we hope he gets better soon. All in all it was great night of racing and some serious fun. The fleet has one more race on September 24th before wrapping up the St FYC season. The race on the 24th however is a special one as the St FYC is hosting the Big Boat Series which means a packed house of spectators.

A recent development for the local fleet is the development of racing out of the Berkeley Yacht Club (BYC) for the 2011 season. The racing will take place right alongside the BYC sailboat fleet and given that Berkeley is the perfect venue for spectators it should be a great race to come on out an watch. The race should start sometime near 6:25 so come on out this Friday, September 17th to witness this historic event!

Complete Results and few photos
http://www.waterhound.com/f4-fins-al-mirel-takes-down-friday-night-formula-racing-san-francisco.html