By Dan Aeling
Competitors:
Nicole Breault - St Francis YC
Bruce Stone - St FrancisYC
Dustin Durant - Long Beach YC
Max Moosmann - Balboa YC
David Storrs - Pequot YC
Peter Holz - Chicago YC
Shala Lawrence - San Diego YC
Dan Aeling - San Diego YC
Event Summary:
In mid-January, when much of the country is bracing for winter's cold months, San Diego is the place to be. This was demonstrated during the 2-day California Dreamin' Match Race event hosted by SDYC on January 12-13. The weather was chilly (by San Diego standards) in the morning, but the bright clear sunshine warmed things up nicely.
This year's San Diego stop for the CA Dreamin' series was loaded with talented competitors, some of which came from as far away as Chicago, IL, and Southport, CT. Drawing competitors from across the country truly speaks to the success of the match racing program at San Diego Yacht Club.
My team for this event included Patrick Morrisey on the bow and Alex Jacobs on jib/spinnaker trim. We have sailed together for several match race regattas and are really beginning to perform well as a team.
Our first match on Saturday morning was sailed in very light and variable wind conditions, sometimes in as little as 2-3 knots. It was important to look for pressure and yet stay close to your competitor at the same time in case of a wind shift. We were sailing against David Storrs from Pequot YC. David had a very solid and experienced team, sailing with Steve Flam (from Long Beach, CA) and Stephanie Roble (from Chicago Match Race Center). We had a good start and led around the first windward mark. David, however, found a bit of extra pressure and was able to sail a lower course and pass us on the downwind leg. At the second windward mark, David was still ahead and we knew that we had to attack on the final downwind leg. At about 200 feet before the finish line, we were positioned right on the transom of David's boat. Our wind shadow had slowed his boat speed considerably. Right before hitting David's transom from clear astern, we executed a couple deceptive wiggles and then came up hard on port tack to drive over him. David luffed sharply to thwart our efforts, but it was too late. We had a little extra speed and we made sure our main was sheeted in to support our tight apparent wind angle. We were able to roll over David's boat and then, with our extra speed, work down in front of him. We threw in one final gybe onto starboard tack and then reached in to the finish line, beating David by about a boat length. Coming from behind on the last leg, this was a very rewarding win and started us off well for the regatta.
We went on to win our next 3 matches in a row against Nicole Breault, Max Moosmann, and Peter Holz. In flight #5, we were up against Dustin Durant, the highest ISAF ranked match racer in the event. The wind had built to 6-8 knots. There was a lot of jockeying for position in the pre-start, but we ended up even at the start with both boats on starboard tack and us to windward with a gap. We both worked our way out to the port tack layline and Dustin was able to tack and cross us and lead around the windward mark. Although Dustin was never able to get very far from us, we were unable to pass him on the remaining 3 legs and Dustin won the race.
We won our final 2 matches on Saturday against Shala Lawrence and Bruce Stone, which gave us a record of 6 wins and 1 loss for the day. Dustin Durant had a matching record, having lost only to Max Moosmann. Max found himself in 3rd place at the end of Day #1 with 4 wins and 3 losses.
On Sunday, we started off with a couple frustrating losses. Our first match was against David Storrs and, once again, the wind was very light and variable for Flight #1. Still, we were able to get a penalty against David in the pre-start and we had a better start than he did, so we felt confident that we could win the match. Yet, in those light and fluky conditions, David found a patch of wind just 40 feet way from us and he was able to accelerate and beat us to the windward mark. When the wind is very light, sometimes the rich just get richer, and that is what David did. He built such a lead that he was able to clear his penalty and win the match.
Our next match was against Jon Rogers, who was a replacement skipper for Nicole Breault who injured her back on Saturday. In the pre-start, we were able to keep Jon from "entering" and he was awarded a penalty. So, once again we thought we were in a good position to win this match. However, something was wrong with our boat speed. We tried adjusting everything we could to build speed, but nothing was working. We were just plain slower around the course and could not figure out why. Jon was able to pass us and, as in the match before, build such a lead that he cleared his penalty and won the race. I was later informed by one of the on-the-water umpires that we had picked up a strand of kelp on our rudder and drug it around the entire course. So, lesson learned... if all else fails when trying to build boat speed, check for kelp! (You would think, having grown up in San Diego, that I would have learned this lesson by now!)
Our bad luck continued for Flight #3 as we lost to Max Moosmann. Finally, for Flight #4, we beat Peter Holz and broke our losing streak for the day.
For Flight #5, we were up against Dustin Durant. We were starboard entry and we ended up in a standard dial-up. We held the dial-up for some time, but then I started losing the bow on starboard tack and was turning down onto Dustin's boat. Since we were the weather/keep clear boat, I made the decision to dump the main sheet, so as not to accelerate, and backwind the jib to help the boat turn down. Our bow cleared Dustin's stern, but I had to turn down even further to avoid Dustin's boat, as he was moving backwards at the time. At that point, we flew the Y-flag to protest Dustin for not keeping clear of us while he was moving backwards and we were moving forward. The umpires agreed with us and awarded a penalty to Dustin. We then gybed and Dustin tacked to go over to the "playground". At the start signal, we both were on starboard tack with us to windward. We sailed all the way to the port layline and Dustin tacked and ducked us. We then tacked and ended up overlapped to windward of Dustin at the first windward mark. This is generally an undesirable position to be in, especially when the leeward boat is carrying a penalty. Instead of bearing off and setting his kite at the windward mark, Dustin luffed us up head-to-wind to try to get an offsetting penalty against us. We stayed in that dialed-up position for about 30 seconds before Dustin finally bore away and set his spinnaker. We followed suit and we just matched what Dustin did on the downwind leg. Our plan was to stay close to Dustin and make sure that he does not get an offsetting penalty against us. At the leeward mark we followed around closely and worked our way up on Dustin's hip. Meanwhile, Dustin sailed a lower course and tacked to try to cross our bow. We were on starboard tack, however, and Dustin did not have enough of a lead to cross and was forced to tack back onto starboard. This gave us the opportunity to tack and lay the windward mark with the lead. We held that lead all the way to the finish and won the match. We knew this was an important win as it would be the tie-breaker if we found ourselves tied with Dustin for the overall regatta.
Our final 2 matches on Sunday were against Shala Lawrence and Bruce Stone and we won both of them, giving us a record of 10 wins and 4 losses for the regatta. Dustin, however, had 11 wins and 3 losses giving him 1st place for the regatta. We came in second place and third place went to Max Moosmann with 9 wins and 5 losses.
Final Results:
Thank you to San Diego Yacht Club and the fantastic group of volunteers that ran the race committee, mark set boat, breakdown/change boat and all the on-the-water umpires! We can't host these great match race events without them.