Encinal Yacht Club hosted an 8 boat Mercury fleet to kick off this year's four Saturdays of racing to determine who will be the 2020 NorCal champion.  The threat of rain in the morning may have discouraged a couple of sailors from coming out but for those who did, by the 12:30 start time the weather was perfect.  Breeze was a steady 5 to 7 knots with puff after puff rolling down the Estuary. Shifty was the word of the day but the shifts lead to a lot of position changes making for great racing for everyone.

The EYC race committee did a really good job moving the marks and adjusting the line as the wind moved from West to South for the final races during the 5 race day.

There were 4 different winners out of 5 races.  Only Doug Baird with son Michael crewing were able to mark up 2 first place finishes. Chris Davis with his crew Karissa showed breakaway speed in race 3 for one of the biggest leads of the day at the finish line. Race 4 went to David Bacci with his daughter Natasha crewing. David did an excellent job of picking the shifts earning him a 2nd, 1st and 3rd in the last 3 races giving him a second place for the day.  Jim & Kathy Bradley won the last race by making good on the wind shift to cross Baird and Bacci at the finish line.
Next 5 races of the series will be sailed out of EYC on April 4th. The Carmiggelt Trophy will also be sailed for on this day and the winner will be awarded a beautiful model of a Mercury.
 
Sail # Skipper  R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total
508 Baird 1 1 3 TO 2 2 6
548 Bacci 4 4 TO 2 1 3 10
553 Bradley 3 3 4 TO 3 1 10
543 Smith 2 2 6 TO 4 4 12
529 Davis 7 7 TO 1 5 7 20
546 Mckenze 5 5 7 TO 7 5 22
552 Gould 6 6 TO 5 6 6 23
537 Ravazza, retired breakdown