Sailing in gray and occasional light rain the first race was a drifter, half sausage course (downwind finish at s/f line, wind out of south. Jim Bradley wins start, West finds a groove with new suit of prototype North Sails (first suit of Mercury sails in nearly half a century!) and wins first race. Randy Smith second, Jim and Kathy Bradley third. Two more dropped out with one directly headed to the great EYC bar looking over the Estuary.

Second race, also a drifter but wind from the North. West's groove isn't found until the downwind leg. Paul Mueller finds his then too for second, finishing overlapped with Smith and Bradley in that order.

The third and fourth races the breeze became sail-able enough to set a full sausage course and it was Smith who found the groove, winning both. Bradley and Mueller tailed him in the third and West and Bradley tailed him in the fourth.  

Smith won for the day with 2-3-1-1 to West 's 1-1-4-2. The weather diminished participation but the RC did a great job in challenging conditions. And the bar was hopping afterwards - further rewarding these intrepid competitors.  

Additional NorCal series info and race documents available at  http://www.encinal.org/pageResource/racing/2019_raceDocs/mercurySeries.php

Race report by Dave West