San Diego Yacht Club hosted the Prince of Wales Area GHJL Qualifier Match Race on the weekend of June 15/16. The event was sailed in J/22 sailboats with (8) teams entered, including Scott Dickson from LBYC, Ryan Davidson and Jeff Keenan from BYC, Bruce Stone from StFYC, and Dan Aeling, Rick Arneson, Bill Pascoe, and Judge Ryan from SDYC.
My team consisted of Patrick Morrisey on bow and Kim McRae (Saturday only) and George Roland (SDYC member, Sunday only) on jib/spinnaker trim. Kim and George were replacement crew members who filled in for Jim Dorsey who had a last minute family obligation which forced him to miss the event altogether.
At the end of the first day, SDYC's Judge Ryan was in first with 6 points, followed closely by LBYC’s Scott Dickson with 5 points. Scott is a longtime match racer and he had received the Ficker Cup invitation to sail in this past spring’s ISAF Grade 1 Congressional Cup. Judge was followed by a four way tie for third place with Arneson, Aeling, Davidson, and Stone each with 4 points.
On Sunday the breeze was a bit stronger and there was a jostling of the competitor scores with BYC's Davidson making a strong surge to the front of the pack, ending the day tied for first place with LBYC's Scott Dickson with 11 total points each, followed by SDYC's Judge Ryan in third with 9 points, and SDYC's Arneson in fourth with 8 points.
Both round robins for the event were completed by early afternoon on Sunday, which allowed for a first-to-two-point knockout round between Scott Dickson and Ryan Davidson to decide the overall winner. Scott won the first match of the knockout series. The second match of the tie breaker was quite heated, with both boats jostling for room at the leeward mark. At the time, Davidson was already carrying one outstanding penalty from the pre-start, which he had received in a failed attempt at a steel balls maneuver. As they approached the leeward mark, Dickson had a leeward overlap with luffing rights on Davidson. Davidson failed to respond in a timely manner to a luff by Dickson, which resulted in a second penalty. Then, shortly thereafter, Davidson received a third penalty for once again not properly responding to a luff by Dickson. This third penalty in match racing, of course, resulted in a black flag disqualification, thereby giving the match win and the overall regatta win to Scott Dickson. For winning the Prince of Wales Area GHJL Qualifier Match Race, Scott Dickson received an invitation to the US Match Racing Championship Finals in Sheboygan this upcoming September.
SDYC's POW Qualifier event was a huge success and both the racing and weather turned out to be some of San Diego's finest. Thank you to SDYC for supporting my entry in the event and also thank you to the race committee (Ian Trotter, Susi Graf, and others) and all the umpires (organized by Karen Butler) who made this match race event possible.