Century Club: Jonathan Nepini

SMSA Wednesday Night Race A-3. Super flukey wind throughout, and not quite enough to start on time. RC started the first fleet and then had to put the rest of us on AP to give them time to even sail clear of the line. Light conditions prevailed, and we sailed a reasonably tidy upwind leg. The entire fleet stacked up at the upwind mark, and we snuck in the inside and completed a tidy rounding and avoided the giant cluster of boats without issue. Got a spin up before realizing it was too high an angle to carry, and quickly doused again. Couldn't quite keep speed on the downwind leg, and managed a 7/9 finish. Good learning opportunites on new positions for a couple crew, and an enjoyable evening despite the conditions.

SMSA Wednesday Night A-2. Lots of people available this week meant we ran the boat with a crew of 7. We had been wondering how the boat would run with this many crew, and it went surprisingly well. There were jobs for the whole crew, we all found spots to move around the boat as needed, and in 11-12kts of wind she picked up 10 degrees of pointing ability at full speed under the #1. A great upwind leg, tidy rounding and set, nice downwind, and another good close reach out and run back. Conditions got very light towards the last mark rounding, and we had a slow last leg. A great sunset and a great evening on the water. Hoping we have the opportunity to run the boat with a big crew in the future.

Running the boat pretty light with a crew of 4 today for the SMSA Spring Invitational. Conditions weren't horrific like they were yesterday, but were still strong, and RC decided to run races in the Bay. The first race was a triangle course around government marks. We started with a broad reach under spinnaker, and worked hard to keep the boat composed and going fast. We responded quickly in the gusts and saved her from rounding up several times. The upwind leg started out somewhat reasonable but built to pretty mighty conditions and 5 foot swells by the time we rounded the next mark. Our run back to the finish was very quick despite our deciding not to put up the spinnaker, and we surfed the boat to over 12 knots on one wave. We hung around for a while as RC set up the second race, and conditions continued to be very stiff. By the time we started, conditions were so heavy we had to pull down the #3 to maneuver to the start, and after a brief consideration of retiring I convinced Dewey to stick it out and run the race. We got on course, got the headsail back up, and got back in the game. Puffy conditions prevailed as we got into the river, and it was a real fight to keep the boat under control and making good speed. The crew was pretty tired by the time we rounded the last mark, so we kept the spin down going to the finish. We managed a strong third place of 8 boats. The whole crew definitely had to earn it today! Glad we stuck it out and finished the second race. 

Out on Dangerous for some skill building before the start of Wednesday nights. Ran all around the river and did a bunch of sets and douses to tighten up our spin work and get a new foredeck started. I worked the mast and did a little coaching to get him up to speed. Great weather and a great day on the water to get tuned up as the racing season gets going.