SlBYC "Night" Point Fermin Race / T-REX

Steve, Steve, Christopher and Paul sailed our first race with our newly acquired T-REX (a B-25) on this late summer sunny and pleasant Saturday afternoon. Nowadays this race is actually the "Afternoon" Pt. Fermin Race.
The 21 mile course from Long Beach up to Pt. Fermin and back starts at 1530 now. In the old days this race started at 1800 and when the wind would invariably quit after dark the fleet would spend hours drifting back to the finish line after a great sail up to Pt. Fermin. The earlier start really makes for a great sail and a fairer test overall in the reliable afternoon breeze.

This year was a lighter air affair with a 10-12 knot breeze at the start that held until sunset when it absolutely gave up the ghost and went to nothing. We got a great start at the pin end (PHRF B) and tacked to cross the fleet to head up the harbor to LA Entrance. Our little 25 footer hung in there better than we all thought with the WB Boys hiking hard and Dad driving. We were first boat for boat several times crossing tacks with the two larger Santana 3030's all the way out through LA Entrance. Paul really liked the old light house. At the Pt. Fermin Buoy we rounded 3rd boat for boat, about 2 minutes behind the 3030's who gave us 9.6 minutes for the entire course. We had our little battles with lots of loose kelp all over the course and spent a lot of time with the kelp stick and even backed down once off Long Beach Entrance to rid ourselves of "a big piece of kelp" as Chris described it from his view through our kelp window.
Stevie drove downwind from LA Light to LB Light as well as handling the foredeck on the numerous jibes we did to stay in phase with the shifts and puffs.




At the East End of the LB Breakwater we were treated to a beautiful sunset and the wind dying down dramatically until at the point of the Alamitos Bay entrance it was blowing about 2-4 knots. Needless to say our position on corrected time slipped away and pending results we are looking at second or third we think. We finished at 1910. All in all a very enjoyable sail where we all had a lot of fun.


We drifted into the dock with an incredible full moon rising, did a quick put away and got home by 2030 for cheeseburgers and fries George Foreman style!

Update-- We did indeed correct out to third in class missing second by 2 seconds!