This year was an exciting women’s one design regatta for the Nauti Chicas. The net-net is we tied for first with a 2-2-2 but lost the tie breaker to CYC with a 4-1-1 and thus we were second place. But there is a lot more to the whole story. First off, we’ve been doing this for a few years now and we’ve evolved into a very experienced and specialized team. We have 12 gals in three departments as I call them, with the T&G (that’s trim and grind) being the core engine of the boat, and then we have the foredeck crew that does their salty magic, and the back of the boat that makes sure we’re going in the right direction with every shift, lift, and header. Managing such a large crew is at times like herding cats, but everyone really came together with the practices and it paid off.
On day one we had very light winds in the usual starting area of inside Long Beach harbor, so the RC led us out to Seal Beach pier, where there was more wind, but as the day went on the unprotected waters made it pretty rough. We had 3 races on day one. Two 2 lappers and a 3 lapper. On the first race we realized we had good speed and point against the others, and we made some smart moves to take advantage of shifts, particularly jibing soon after the weather mark. Our leeward gate roundings went very well and we had a lot of confidence building. On the second race we and the 1st place boat from San Diego YC were called over early, which in one design racing is usually a death toll, but we came back to 2nd place again thanks to our tactician Terri Manok, and again, the whole team. On the third race we were again over early stuck in a predicament of closing out a barging boat or digging a hole with a leeward boat. We kind of halfway did both and that didn’t work. So back we went again, and back we came again, another 2nd place!
After the first day of racing we had a little bit of fun. We dressed the boat up in a hula skirt with bow lei, had a birthday cake for Tami and Betsy, and then strategized for Sunday morning. We had some pretty detailed plans on our starts against Cal YC and San Diego YC. Forecasts were for strong Santa Ana winds below the canyons and passes gusting to 50kts. We were cognizant of that but had this feeling that it won’t be so bad in Long Beach. Wrong! The fleet went out in patchy winds and about 45 minutes before the start a sheet of wicked wind came on through. We hid behind the lee of an oil island for an hour or so, wind was clocking 38-40 according to the official wind meters of iwindsurf.com. It looked like a textbook Beaufort force 8 or whatever – spray off the top of the waves, plus sand off the Belmont shore beach. The RC called the race and we headed back in, but our engine couldn’t power through it and we needed a tow. This is a whole other story, I will just say thank you to Capt. Mike on Storm, who set up a bridle and took us in tow in really nasty conditions.
Sue Senescu
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