Blossom came in 5th out of 7th. We were actually in the lead after the first beat leg. Unfortunately, during the second (beam reach) and third leg (broad reach) all other Tritons passed us as we watched with a total dismay. We were the only one with a high cut and hollow leach jib on the roller furler where as everyone else had deck sweeping full roach jib (class rule only allows working jib and main, no spinnaker, no genoa). We regained a couple of positions in legs 4 (beat) and maintained it in leg 5 (run) and 6 (beat) and finished fifth. Ely Gilliam of Bolero won first place and took back the Triton perpetual trophy from Norman Thomas of Rascal II.
Ely with his hardware and the runner up Ian Elliott
The girls on the (in)famous T-Mark who flashes every sailor rounding of the mark, and there are three (roundings of the T-Mark, not three girls) during the race
After the race we all congregated overnight at the South Beach Harbour. Swapped stories and Triton modification ideas. A lots of booz and cigars were consumed on Rob Squires' Head over Hills, the beauty queen of the fleet. This morning we had breakfast together at the Java House by the marina. After cleaning up and reorganizing the boats everyone took off around 10AM for their own marina. After seeing Mark Harrington sailed his motorless Triton out of the marina Rob and I decided to show off a little of our own sailing skills as well. We followed Mark and sailed out the marina on the way back to Alameda. When our friend Steve Cossman and his sweetheart passed us by under full steam we gave him a hard time for taking the easy way out. It was a fun weekend.