Sometimes there just isn’t enough wind. Here in San Diego, at least this year, “Sometimes” is playing mind games with us. She’s teasing us by letting it blow mid-week, and then hunting down our scheduled Regatta weekends and pouring on the calm.

The SDWA Formula Fleet stood by June 2nd as “sometimes” did her thing up until we abandoned racing for the day. Then she let off enough for the guys to get out and play. Braving 5-10mph winds, the Fleet set out to spar away in the waning afternoon breeze.

Lasse Uronen, Dave Dombrowski, Dave O’Connor, Dan Copper, and Greg Hedlund broke out sails from the new Maui Sails TR-3 12.0 Class, while Gabor Vagi, George Israel, and Tuan N’Guyen sailed their Prydes. Despite the light winds, everyone was able to get in some planing reaches and tune their gear, while Robert van and Christina Solstad putted out in a small inflatable and managed to shoot some pics.

The June Regatta was rescheduled for June 9th. Yes, it blew mid-week again, and yes, “Sometimes” showed up on race day (again). Not wanting to cancel another Regatta, we raced anyway in 6-12mph winds. Keep in mind that in these kinds of conditions, racing is more like digging a rail and schlogging to windward, with a gust every now and then allowing some racers to plane up and gain advantage. Planing downwind was a little easier, but there was a fair amount of schlogging going on there as well.

Traditionally, these conditions favor Orange County’s Peter Bonello on his RS4-12.5/Mikes Lab and Joe Roth on his new Red Head 11.8 Warp/F2 FX-pickle fork ultra light air board. Both are "expert class" racers to boot; Peter, a former Olympian, had won 8 of the last 10 SDWA Regattas he’d entered, and Joe, a former US Open Champion, had won or tied in 3 during that time.

So we get in 3 races.... schlog-plane-schlog-schlog-plane…and so on. The 1st race, Lasse, riding a TR-3 12.0 and F2 FX, led from wire-to-wire, holding off Peter, with Tuan a distant 3rd. Joe had a TERRIBLE start (we’re talking minutes) and was never a factor.

Amazingly, Lasse wins the Regatta with 2 firsts and a second! This was Lasse’s 1st Regatta riding his new Maui Sails TR-3 12.0
Well done Lasse!Robert van w/pics by Christina Solstad