Santana 22 Nationals 2014 Monterey CA.

It took us a few races to begin to get it together,  it was unfortunate that Nationals consist of five races total.

I was fortunate to get a chance to crew aboard the Santana 22 "Shanman" this year.  I haven't been racing as home life and side projects have been dominating everything ( and this is not a bad thing, just tough on sailing ).  I turned down a couple of crew slots aboard other boats knowing I just wouldn't be able to be consistent.

So, I was stoked to get a chance to crew for just this set of races.  Saturdays set of three races saw us getting our act together.  We hadn't sailed as a team before ( can't count a super light beer can race as practice) and the level of competition was unforgiving of mistakes.  We would get a decent start, but make a bad choice for which side of the course had better wind.  It ended up relegating us to the tail end of the field and by the end of Saturdays racing we were a little down.

Sunday saw another beautiful Monterey day, though we started with a few isolated showers and some sprinkles at the dock.  Sunday saw us have better starts and playing the course better.  We were in amongst our nearest competitors and though our place didn't change,  we fought a better fight.  We raced as hard and best we could and had a blast doing it.

Norcal sailing has an excellent article recounting the specifics of the races if you want more and better info.

The video above is a collection of moments from the various races strung together as best I could.  The little handheld waterproof camera I use was set to a weird white balance, thus the cold look to some of the clips.  Monterey was a hoot, in terms of sailing.  Warm and lots of wildlife.  I got to sail in a tee shirt all the days, almost unheard of on the main SF Bay where foulies and salt water in your ears is the norm.

On the sail from Santa Cruz to Monterey not only did we get to see whales up close and personal, but I got to confirm that I do still get sea sick in long period swell ( not to the point of being non-functional or vomiting though ).  Here is an image Tom caught of a whale as we neared Monterey.