• Start: Very good start, powered up near the pin end of the line to catch stronger wind. A much smaller boat port-tacked us, barely cleared, and were cheering at having made it, although I suspect they didn't realize how close they had come to being t-boned and sunk!
• Leg 1 (beat to Yellow Bluff): Phantom Mist tried to lee bow and then luff us up, but Chuck "politely" told them to stuff it, and we promptly rolled over them. We were solidly 1st in our division around the first mark.
• Leg 2 (reach to Alcatraz): Wind angle was ever tighter than I had forecast so we couldn't carry a kite. Simply powered through wind shadows of smaller boats in divisions ahead of us, taking advantage of our big stick. Stayed high to crab against the flood tide and maintain speed and angle all the way to Alcatraz, which worked well and stretched our lead, especially against those boats that headed directly to Alcatraz.
• Leg 3A (run to Angel Island): Got our kite up early, stayed out of the wind shadow at Alcatraz, and then cooked just inside the right tide/channel line down to Angel Island, stretching our lead. Aleta initially got stuck in the Alcatraz wind hole, but then broke free to ride the wind and flood tide down after us.
• Leg 3B (run to Red Rock): We went into the classic Angel Island wind hole, changed down to lighter whoompers, and crept with flood tide toward the new wind below Raccoon Strait. Phantom Mist went low toward Bezerkeley, which looked good at first, but then she (and those with her) disappeared into a major wind/tide hole never to be seen again. Aleta had closed on us, but we still had a decent lead at Red Rock, the 1st boat of all divisions to reach it. Rounding Red Rock we stayed far enough away to avoid the wind hole that several behind us got stuck in.
• Leg 4A (beat to Pt Bluff): Immediately headed over toward Paradise Cay to get the land breeze, but made the mistake a number of times of tacking too early, then losing the land breeze and getting caught in the flood tide, allowing Aleta to gain a great deal on us. Finally did the right thing and sailed on a port tack header over to the shore, so we could then ride a long starboard tack lift down to Pt Bluff, stretching our lead again. Aleta made bigger mistakes, and soon disappeared into the distance behind us.
• Leg 4B (beat up Raccoon Strait to Yellow Bluff): Very tricky wind when we got to Raccoon Strait made it impractical to follow classic and intended tactics of hugging the north shore. We did well on the south shore at first but then tried to cross to Pt Tiburon and dropped into a big wind hole. Bodacious, coming in later, was able to play the north shore and gain hugely on us while we were trapped in the hole, why we finished 2nd on corrected time instead of 1st. Finally got wind and started charging away from Bodacious but didn't have enough distance left to go to regain 1st on corrected time.
• Leg 5 (downwind to Finish): Didn't get our act together to get a kite up, and the wind was now blowing hard, so the call was made to sail the last short leg without a kite, which wouldn't have made any difference in results and wasn't worth the risk. Good call by Chuck -- we rounded up on a jibe even without the kite, and it might well have been much worse with a kite up. Finished with a good head of steam right at the committee boat, 1st boat of all divisions to finish, 2nd in our division behind Bodacious, way ahead of all other boats.
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