I represented the California F16 fleet, this past weekend, at the 40th Camelia Cup Regatta (won last year by Doc Poulsen).This regatta is a really well organized and officiated annual event of the Folsom Lake Yacht Club and the city of Folsom (east of the Cali. capitol of Sacramento). We're experiencing a really weird (unprecedented ) winter weather pattern here in California that rather redundantly features rain , rain showers , thunderstorms and the odd snow flurry just to keep things fresh... Conditions, both days of the regatta, were light W - NW whispers of wind that later clocked full west at about 5 knots. At times a high slapped the lake with 0 knts. of wind - though, I noticed this only happened when i overstood a mark or tacked miles from the rumb line chasing pressure.For those of you who find youself mentally humming a tune as you race ( I always do...) , I kept hearing Johnny Cash singing , "I'm stuck in Folsom Prison..." when the wind died and A/C ~ D/C's "Highway To Hell" when I took a gamble and sailed away from the short course in search of wind ! Really light wind races are a tremendous mental exercise and gratifying in a manner similiar to say - painting your closet - ; tedious, annonymous, but gratifying when you finish ; though reluctant to ever paint that closet in the hallway... In the end , technology and modern design, succumbed to good solid tactics and a portsmouth rating with as many coma's as a '66 corvair's odometer, as a Prindle 16 took a well earned victory for the regatta.
