The best attendance in years, 14 Mercs entered the Perry Cup regatta at the Monterey Peninsula YC. The weather was sunny with a 8-10 knot north westerly breeze as the day began. There was a swell with a little chop as the racing started. Race one had a very tight race between Jim and Kathy Bradley and Doug Baird with Kate Conway. The course was a twice around sausage finishing downwind. Bradley won with some good upwind work and Baird second. Tim Cordrey and Chris Dever, who were racing a Merc for the first time in many years, did a fine job and placed third. Dave Morris and Jared January were threatening the top group and had to settle for fourth. Peter Baldwin and Walter Smith, home from their Cal 40 division win in the Pacific Cup, placed fifth.

Race two the wind went more southerly. The course was a three times around sausage finishing downwind. The places changed many times through the race 3. The wind had big shifts, a few holes and overcast. This was like an obstacle course. Baird won sailing very smart. Morris placed second followed by Cordray. Fourth place went to Pax Davis and Aaron Lee. Bradley was fifth.
Race three was the same course and the same conditions. Once again the positions changed on each lap. However Bradley got the lead along with Mark and Liz Chandler. Out front the duked it out with Bradley finishing first and Chandler second. Baird was third followed by Davis and in fifth place Park Densmore and Marco Zaninovich.
Day two and race four. The fleet was greeted with an overcast day and a light breeze to get out to the starting line. The race was delayed for 30 minutes. The sailors were entertained by a whale that was close enough to check the keels. The wind was NW, but very light. The course was a double sausage that ended up a windward leeward that took about 1 ½ hours to sail. Baird got off fast and did an excellent job in relative smooth water and a pretty fair swell. Second place went to Densmore, who sailed very well in the light wind. Bill Buckingham and Blair Peterson placed third followed by Chris Davis, sailing his first regatta in his recently purchased Merc, and Bob Scholl with fifth place going to Bradley.
Congrats to Doug Baird for winning the regatta and to Park Densmore for taking the Silver  Fleet Trophy.
Many thanks to the Wombles for the use of their power boat as a committee boat and Dick Clark, organizer and PRO for the regatta with his committee, Chip and Joan Wood, Judy Clark.Donna Womble did the scoring on the computer.