NOTICE of JULY 2010 SF BAY HOPPE REGATTA

Saturday, July 10, 2010 is this year's date for the San Francisco Bay's Hoppe Regatta!

BACKGROUND: The Hoppe Memorial Regatta is a fun race for Ariel and Commander skippers. The principle requirement is that the race be short and fun.

START: The start - finish line is located off the Corinthian Yacht Club in Raccoon Strait. The race will start at 1300 hours (I:00 PM). (Prepatory signal 1250 hours, warning signal 1255 hours.) The power cruiser SOLSTICE is the committee boat. Start will be announced on channel 71.

COURSE: Sail around Angel Island in either direction.

FINISH: SOLSTICE - where you began.


Tides at the Golden Gate
June 13, 2009

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Flood 1037 4.00 kts
Slack 1401 0.00 kts
Ebb 1608 2.20 kts
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CURRENTS: Be sure to check your tidal charts, they may be important to your strategy. Note too, that currents near Angel Island are 15 to 20 minutes after max at the Golden Gate. An old sailing adage is “hold to the beach.” Also, be aware of the major wind shadow behind Angel Island.

PROTESTS: No protests will be allowed. Rules of the road apply. First qualified boat to finish wins.

ALLOWANCES & HANDICAPS: No allowances for BBQ grills, TVs, excessive tools, supplies or cruising gear.

REGISTRATION: Just let us know if you plan to participate in the Hoppe Regatta. Please E-mail your registration to rphelon (AT) juno (dot) com, or call Gene Roberts (415) 731-5444, or Bill Phelon (925) 254-8338. No one will be turned away if they don't register, but they may not get a start or a finish if we don't know you are there – we may be busy with cocktails.

AWARDS GATHERING: The regatta should end early enough to give everyone plenty of time to get to the Encinal Yacht Club for the 6:30 PM awards gathering. If you plan sailing in, please let us know ahead of time so that we can arrange berthing.

Race Committee

Looks like the stars are aligning with maintenance work and we will be able to make the race. Not sure about the Awards Gathering however.

See you there -

Patrick

Hey Patrick - it will be nice to see you out there... - I just got back in town today... But despite the world cup schedule (& other distractions) the 'Mephisto Cat' (C-155) will be in attendance.

There might be an extra boat or two making an appearance... (Fingers crossed!)

Go Holland! (World Cup...)

Good luck to all A/C Captains and crew!

I drove out to try to catch the end of the festivities this afternoon;

I remembered;

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Originally Posted by Bill

....START: The start - finish line is located off the Corinthian Yacht Club in Raccoon Strait...

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I did not recall;

Quote:

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AWARDS GATHERING: The regatta should end early enough to give everyone plenty of time to get to the Encinal Yacht Club for the 6:30 PM awards gathering.

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:(

You may not be surprised to learn that as I wandered around the Corinthian Yacht Club this afternoon, I did not see any A/C's nor did anyone I spoke with have any idea where the awards gathering might be..... :p

Oh well, maybe I shall meet some of you at the Alberg gathering in San Rafael tomorrow.

Hope that everyone had a good race!

US COAST GUARD
STARTS HOPPE REGATTA
ACYA News Service San Francisco

Saturday, July 10, 2010: The ACYA race committee and regatta participants at the Ariel - Commander Yacht Association’s annual Hoppe Memorial Regatta were surprised to find a US Coast Guard helicopter managing the regatta’s start - finish line and demonstrating rescue procedures.

The CG staged it’s “show” in front of the Corinthian Yacht Club, and almost directly overhead of the race committee boat. Seems it was a part of the Corinthian’s Easter Seals Day on the Bay celebration. Unfortunately, the show opened just as the race committee was beginning the starting sequence for the Hoppe regatta.

Since the Coast Guard helicopter was only about a 100 feet away from the committee boat, and because there were harbor police boats keeping everyone away from the “stage,” the race committee decided to postpone the start until the racers could get out from behind the action and over to the revised starting line in Raccoon Straight. Communicating this to the fleet over the noise from the nearby helicopter was a real challenge. Of course, just as the race was finally starting from its new location, the Coast Guard demonstration ended and the helicopter flew off to its home base!

Three boats were signed up to start, but only two made it to the starting line. Seems Pat Nolan had engine problems and could not get away from his dock at the Treasure Island yacht harbor.

The Hoppe Regatta participants were the Commanders Portugal Princess and Mephisto Cat, skippered by Michael Bell and Antonio Rico, respectively. Each chose a different direction around Angel Island – Antonio went clockwise and Michael went counter clockwise.

The suspense was ended, however, when Michael radioed from Portugal Princess that he was abandoning the race. Michael reported that had to start the engine when they had found themselves without wind and drifting toward rocks on the far side of the island. An unfortunate outcome, but better safe than sorry!

About an hour or so later, Mephisto Cat appeared around the west side of the island and soon took the winning signal as they crossed start - finish line.

With that, the race committee hoisted anchor and made for its port at Brick Yard Cove in Richmond. As the boat was being put away, another tradition was observed as Kent and Claudia Smith provided the race committee with champaign in recognition of everyone’s hard work and dedication.

Then, it was off to the Encinal Yacht Club and the awards dinner. Michael and the Portugal Princess crew were unable to attend, as were the committee boat’s captain and crew. To make up for the loss, long time members Don & Loyce Morrison, association treasurer Gene Roberts and spouse Mary Phelon attended the dinner.

Antonio accepted the Hoppe perpetual trophy and the special “keeper” trohy (a bottle of champaign) for his Mephisto Cat crew. Everyone went home promising to return next year to defend the Hoppe trophy.

A very special thanks goes to the race committee boat’s skipper, Larry Rosenfeld and his wife Meg. Without them, this event would very likely not take place.

Wow - Nice CG Pictures!

I will have to post my pictures and route map later... but I can provide a narrative now. This was a stressful race. And it was very dissappointing that we did not have a 3rd boat, and did not get to meet Patrick & C-151...
In any case, it still made for a fun day.

We started off in a confused start due to the coast guard helicopter doing their drills RIGHT ON TOP of the start area. After last year, I thought it'd be more fun to race boat on boat (around in the same direction - not opposite...) but in the confusion, and with the improvised start sequence well, that was not to be... So off we went in opposite directions again. We started off in good breeze down raccoon straits, but as we reached the far-end of the straits, the wind simply disappeared. There is the typical Angel Island wind shadow... but this was strangely further North than usual... there was just not a lot of wind at this point.

We stared off at how the water ripples remained consistently about 150 yards away from us... and we sat in desperation in a calm. Just drifting along at a fraction of a knot with the windex spinning around and around... Looking at the GPS data we spent about 27inutes at speeds lower than 2 kts at this point....

We feared the sight of the bright yellow hull of the Portugal princess coming around in the opposite direction at any moment... We were becalmed - rare in the Bay's summer... but from what we could see at the south end of the Island - all the way to the city was a nice stiff breeze pulling white caps off the swell...

We were sure we'd be decimated. There we sat for at least a half hour, certainly more... in agony.

We finally managed to get caught in a breeze that would carry us a bit further - then it would die... After a few similar experiences, we got into real air.
'Complaining about the lack of wind, eh?' Nature responded...

As soon as we cleared into the slot BAM! - 25kts steady... and we had to beat against it. By this point we still had not seen the Princess (not having caught any info on the radio) and started to think that we'd simply not seen her come around us as we got busy in the stiff breeze, and had lots of spray in our eyes...

But there we went... The stiff winds caught the sea and made it into swell. This swell made the boat climb upon it and there was spray flying everywhere... The crew donned the wet gear in plenty of time, but the weather was so hot that the skipper held off when he had a chance. A wave, or two later I was soaked and there was no point even thinking about the wet gear... (I dried off eventually in the heat & breeze, but you can still see the crunchy white salt on my sleeves in the pictures!)

The skipper was under silent pressure from the (now strangely quiet crew) to tack and get out out of the SLOT. But he held off until what was just the righ moment which allowed the Mephisto Cat (just barely) to clear the west point of Angel Island on a single tack... (-If I may toot my own horn!)

As we came around we were already convinced that we'd see the Princess hanging out by the finish line waiting for us... We radioed and got the suprising news.

We were once again in very light starting at the western point of Angel Island and through the finish line. All evidence of our windy adventures left at the slot. (Except for the soaked skipper!)

We dropped half of the crew at the Sam's dock in Tiburon and headed for home... No lack of wind then... We ran with the wind not jiving once all the way to Berkeley... We were maintaining mid-7 kts consistently on the way home, and if the swell came at the right time we could sustain mid-8kts for short periods of time. The GPS reported a 2 mile segment of this run where the average speed was 7.0 knots. That is the average... - Not bad, eh?

We had a great sail (except for the calm parts...), and upon putting the boat away we raced off to the host yacht club for the ceremonies, where we found the rest of our crew at the bar (all nicely cleaned-up and beers in hand.) The rest of the Association reps. were patiently waiting for us at the table. We had a very nice dinner and eventually headed home after a long day...

Thanks to Bill for the continued support for the association's events, and for the committee boat skipper for diligently standing his ground vs the coast guard!

I will look forward to next year's race... I'll make a point of chasing a boat one way or the other!

Looks like Nemesis and crew missed out on a good sail. Carberator problems on the ole outboard made it a no go for us.

We were able to sail in the Plastic Classic on the 17th. Nemesis took 3rd in the PHRF-non spinaker fleet, and 18th overall. Surprise to us because we seemed so slow compared to the other Cammmander out there - Mephisto Cat was on a roll - first in the PHRF-non spinaker fleet, and first overall. Nice.

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Originally Posted by Patrick Sullivan

Mephisto Cat was on a roll - first in the PHRF-non spinaker fleet, and first overall. Nice.

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The Ariel & Commander do very well based on their PHRF. Clean bottom and good sail handling makes for a winner. :cool:

There were some "classes" with only a few boats - would be good to see more than two boats in one of these races (we tried to make it 3) Any idea about how many active commanders and Ariels there are on the bay?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patrick Sullivan

Any idea about how many active commanders and Ariels there are on the bay?

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Since the demise of the Ariel One Design fleet in the early '00s, very few. Right now, I believe Mephisto Cat and Portugal Princess are the most active.:)

I am happy to announce that the Mephisto Cat did manage to do quite well...

3rd Place in the 'Single handler' category in the Concourse D' Elegance
1st Place in PHRF Non-Spinnaker (18 Boats)
1st Place OVERALL (64 Boats)
1st Place Fastest Pre-1970's Boats (?? # Boats)
1st Place In Class (?? # Boats)

- Woo Hoo!!

The last two categories in RED I found out about only when I received the loot (medals & trophies in the mail!)

Pictures and a recap here:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...5-Mephisto-Cat

Quote:

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Since the demise of the Ariel One Design fleet in the early '00s, very few. Right now, I believe Mephisto Cat and Portugal Princess are the most active.

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Perhaps the fleet would be more active if Commanders has been included in the fleet back in the day....

I see that there a handful of active boats - some with new skippers. I almost got two more boats to come out for the Hoppe.... Sadly, this did not happen.

The Alberg association is helping to support a more social environment. It used to be the Triton association, but in their dwindling numbers they are eagerly welcoming other Alberg design owners in their ranks.

There are also a few recent new owners out there... we just need to get ourselves out sailing at the same time...

I am curious, has there been any thought to a Hoppe Regatta for this year? If so are there thoughts to do something in the spring or summer