It was a beautiful sunny day where ten Mercs entered the regatta for the Hart Nunes Perpetual Trophy. The tide was beginning to flood and there was a nice breeze coming down Raccoon Straits. 

Race one was a double sausage finishing downwind. All of a sudden the true breeze came in, right at the start. The fleet split with Jack McAleer and Eric Stassevich taking the long starboard tack to Angel Island. It worked well and he led the first lap. However on the second weather lap he made the same tack to the island. It worked again, but now the tide at the weather mark was a full flood and the wind was very shifty. The wind would come and go, but McAleer was able to hold his lead to win the race. The rest of the fleet changed positions many times, but Bill Buckingham and Blair Peterson were able to handle the 100 degree shifts and the changing velocity of the wind, to place second. John Hansen and Jared January also did a good job at the weather mark to place third.

The wind picked up again between races. The race committee decided to change the starting area and the length of the course. In the period between races four Mercs decided this was not fun and proceeded to sail back to the club, which was a challenge. The racing did go on, in fact four more races.

The winner was Steve Jeppesen and Ken Maring. In the last four races, they had three seconds and a first. Chris and Jeff Lanzafame were second overall with two firsts, a second and a third. Jim and Kathy Bradley came in third with a first, a third and a fourth.

Congratulations to Steve and Ken for winning the Hart Nunes Perpetual Trophy

Anne McCormack organized a nice regatta with Jim Barton as the PRO. Many thanks to the San Francisco YC for inviting the Mercurys.