L.A. Mercury Fleet had its inaugural SOCAL Series on Saturday with blue skies and 4 to 7 knots of breeze. The intention is to sail the same Saturdays as the NORCAL series and promote more activity within the fleet. Three boats came out, race 1 was  2 laps 4 knots of breeze out of the south /SW, Park Densmore got out ahead right after the start and lead the whole way, with Brad Bergeron taking second, Tom Priest coming in third.

Race 2 was more of the same, wind was starting to clock to the west still 4 to 5 knots of breeze. Again it was Densmore, Bergeron, and Priest.

Race 3 was forgettable, wind starting to peak at 6 to 7 knots (maybe) and really going around to the west. RC gave us a 1 lap course, however shortly after the start wind really shifted and all 3  boats were heading straight for the weather mark. After the rounding it was a reach to the finish. Priest was first, then Bergeron and Densmore.

Race 4 wind came around to its normal west direction, after moving the start finish line around for the breeze (moving committee boat and pin rather than trying to adjust weather mark) we got off a 2 lap race with puffs to 7 knots. Everyone got off to a great start. With a tight rounding the fleet split jibes covering both sides of the course. Next up wind and down wind were the same with Priest edging out Densmore at the finish.

Despite only having 3 boats, it was a good day on the water!  Our next race for the series will be on April 1st, we should see 5 to 6 more boats coming out!

Many thanks to Bruce Neighbors and Jerry Beaver, the CBYC race committee. Once again they did a wonderful job given the wind conditions. Not only was Jerry helping with Race Committee (by setting the line and dropping the weather mark) but he crewed for Park ......every time the wind shifted I dropped Jerry off on the committee boat so he could help get the boat and line square, then he jumped back on the boat and we'd go race!  Said the last time he had been in a mercury was at Huntington Lake 50 years ago!