Long Point Race Week

Long Point Race Week this year lived up to it's hype as being one of the most entertaining regatta's of the year. Team Ullman Sails was well represented with Scott Poe racing on "Tango" the J-133, Ben Lakin on the IMX-38 "Martela" and Erik Shampain and Keith Magnussen racing on the Hobie 33 "Still Crazy." Friday's race to Catalina started out in 5-10 kts of wind with most of the boats going a few degrees high. On the Hobie 33 we elected to take the low road and try to get the westerly first. It looked good until we got about 10 miles from the island and a 100 degree shift happened in a mater of 10 minutes. The wind went west and then north-west as we approached the island. This forced us to soak to the finish line and in fact almost had to jibe to make it! Not an ideal angle for a Hobie 33 in light wind. We managed to hang on for a third place behind Alan Andrews on his boat 'Double Time."

Sunday was a different story as we started in light breeze heading towards Ship Rock off the Isthmus. The wind built and when we got close to Ship Rock we were overpowered in 20kts with the genoa still up. all that mattered was getting around and getting the boat surfing like it

should be. We rounded and set t

he 2A and immediately started surfing. Driving the boat was a blast and I felt like I was on a 33ft surfboard dropping into waves doing 12 kts. We quickly recovered the distance we lost upwind and finished first on corrected time.

Sunday was a light wind affair all the way back to Newport. We started close hauled with the genoa then switched out to the Code O as the wind went aft. The Code O did not last long as the wind was still shifting. We went up with the 1A and then to the 2A later on. We were mainly concerned with Alan Andrews and Steve Emest's "Aimant de Fille" as they were the only two boats that could beat us for the overall. We stayed in front of the boats we needed to and finished second for the day and first overall.

The party on the island was fantastic and the food was amazing. I was fortunate enough to race with a great group of people on a proven boat. Check out the results and then go to Joy Sailing and look at some pictures of the weekend.