2008 Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta

After nearly two months of inactivity, Scorpio and the rest of the IRC fleet looked forward to the annual Aldo Alessio Regatta which also served as the West Coast IRC Championship.

Because of the upcoming J105 North American Championship, the J105 fleet chose not to participate this year.  That left the J120 class and 17 IRC boats.  The IRC entries, ranging from the 77 foot Akela to 1D35s, were divided into three small divisions.  Division A consisted of the TP52 Mayhem, the Turbo SC 52 Kokopelli2, the Schumacher 54, Swiftsure, and the RP 77 Akela.  In Division B, the Tripp 43 TNT was scratch boat followed by the Turbo 1D35 Double Trouble, the Wylie 42 Scorpio, two stock 1D35s Alpha Puppy and Diablita, and two Sydney 38s Howl and Bustin Loose.  Division C consisted of the Beneteau 40.7s White Dove and Phantom Mist, the Elan 40 Tupelo Honey, the IMX 38 Hawkeye, the Peterson 47 Aleta, and the Sunkiss 45 Acabar.

Race 1 – Lightship, 18, 16, RD Finish.

The Friday ocean race is typically our nemesis.  This year we were blessed with reasonable wind and some windy racing inside the Bay which allowed us to take first over TNT correcting by nearly three minutes.  We sailed with the L3 to the lightbucket where we saw about 12 knots.  In anticipation of building winds, we set the poly kite and used it all the way to Blossom Rock.  In retrospect, we would have been better off peeling to the .75 and peeling back to the poly as we approached the gate.  Nevertheless, we sailed a decent race and reveled in the 25+ knot breeze in the Bay.

Mayhem took Division A while White Dove beat Tupelo Honey in Division C.  Mayhem had the lowest overall corrected time which made them the Perpetual Trophy winner for the second year in a row.

Race 2 – 1s, 1o, 3tgate, 1s, 1o, 3tgate, Finish

Race 2 was a typical morning race.  We sailed a long course with three long beats to Presidio Shoal and two runs to a gate situated off TI.  We played the cone and sailed a decent race.  However, we ended up second to TNT by 48 seconds.  We were now tied with them for the lead.

Race 3 - 1s, 1o, 3gate, 1s, 1o, gate, Finish

Race 3 was similar to race 2, but significantly shorter with the gate situation southwest of Alcatraz.  This meant, particularly in the strong flood that we had extremely short downwind legs.  We sailed a horrible race have problem with both sets.  We had a several wrap on one hoist, and sailed bald headed for much of the run and the beginning of the beat.  We saw gusts over 30 in this race which meant similar problems for our other competitors.  We miraculously finished second.  TNT beat us by 1:19 putting us a point behind them overall.

Race 4 – 16, 17, 18, 6, 8, 4, 1, RD Finish

Sunday's bay tour was a wonderful sail around the boat.  We sailed very well knowing we had to beat TNT to win the regatta.  In the end, TNT corrected on us by 10 seconds.  TNT sailed a very good regatta and deserved to win, although we thought we had them in the final race.  In evaluating where we might have made up 10 seconds, we probably should have used our new main which we'd been saving for RBBS.  Perhaps another tack in at Alcatraz on our final upwind leg, and carrying our kite for a few more seconds on each downwind leg could have made the difference.

We look forward to next month's Rolex Big Boat Series. 

Race Results