7.7.07 – may have brought some unforeseen luck for some sailors but anyone of the 15 windsurfers and kiters who finished this years SF Classic and UN Challenge had been training hard all season for the premier long distance race in the US Windsurfing National Ranking Tour.
A light wind and fog greeted the formula and kite fleet on Saturday morning for the skippers meeting on the race deck of the St. Francis Y.C. Soon enough by 2:30 the breeze filled in for a start just off Anita Rock in front of Crissy Field. The tide would be flooding all afternoon and the race would take sailors on a 45+ mile journey outside the golden gate and around 14 downwind gybe marks before heading through the end of the Berkeley pier and coming back upwind for the Ultra Nectar Challenge. Most sailors choose their 10.0 and ML boards as thats the unofficial SF one design.
The fleet was split at the start with half on port and half on starboard. I opted for port at the pin just above Mike Z and Ben. We crossed the starboard tackers with no problem and headed out to the breeze. Ben pulled away with some amazing speed while I worked my angle the best I could to shut Mike Z out. It was the beginning of a long race but every battle counted. David Wells got away clean on port below us and was out to a good start on his new L7 and finworks fin. I looked back to check the starboard tackers who were getting a nice inside lift at this point and climbing but it was still a bit sketchy near shore. Ben was the first to tack as he ran out of room heading towards the north tower. I carried it out further as I knew there was a strong flood and clearing the south tower was number one priority. As we got closer to the red nun just outside the gate, it was evident, the San Francisco conditions were indeed classic. The standing 4′ voodoo chop hit the fleet like a mack truck in LA traffic. Boards were going down left and right…The leaders falling like trees in a storm.
For the rest of the SF Longboard Classic and the Ultra Nectar Challenge race report as well course racing from Day 2 go to www.stevebodner.blogspot.com
Steve, USA 4
