2012 Junior Snipe Nationals Results
On Wednesday the 13th of June my crew and I, Riley Gibbs (ABYC) flew to Miami Florida to compete in the Snipe Jr. Nationals. With heavy winds forecasted for the weekend we knew we were in for a treat. On Thursday we got to the sailing center nice and early to get our boat prepped for the weekend followed by a long day of sailing. This day was a good warm up for how the weekend would shape up. Lighter winds in the morning 5-8 knots followed by heavier winds in the afternoon, 10-15.
Friday, the following day was measurement. We were at the yacht club at 9 in the morning and didn't leave until 7 o’clock that night. We spent the entire day taking apart our boat and waiting in lines to get our boat measured. We originally planned to go sailing this day, but we couldn't due to heavy thunder and lightning storms along with almost golf ball size hail.
Saturday was the first day of racing. Three races were scheduled in around 15•20 knots of wind. The day started with an on land postponement due to thunderstorms seen on the radar. Soon after the thunderstorms were gone we were sent out to go racing. With so little time to go upwind before the first start due to postponement, we were a little unsure what the wind was doing. So we started our first race with a conservative start in the middle of the line. We tacked off of the line onto port and was leading a pack going right. From what it looked like we were in second in the race. Instead of tacking back onto starboard and going with the fleet, we gambled and went further right to get more leverage. Unfortunately the left came in huge. We rounded the windward mark beating only 1 other boat, passed a few boats throughout the course of the race and finished the race in 12th of 25 boats.
The second race we had a great start, nailed the first shift, and found ourselves rounding the windward mark in 3rd. Unfortunately, having grown up in southern California, with light winds, the common trend amongst our local snipe fleet is not knowing how to reach in big breeze. We rounded the windward mark in 3rd, the reech mark in 6th, the leeward mark in 9th, and lost 2 more boats throughout the coarse of the next lap, finishing in 11th overall. Going into our final race, we knew we were fast as long as we weren't reaching. We started the final race of the day with an open mind, and good spirits after seeing the course was a double windward leeward on what seemed like mile long beats. We finished this race in 4th, having passed boats the entire race.
Sunday, had scheduled 2 more races, with winds forecasted at 20 knots. We started our first race with a killer start, rounding the windward mark in second, then lost 3 boats on the reach, but maintaining 5th almost the entire race. The breeze was very shifty, with heavy oscillating winds the conditions were tricky. Within the final 2 boat lengths of the race we lost 2 boats, due to seaweed on our blades, and tacking in motorboat chop. This was very frustrating considering we sailed 2 laps with almost mile long beats and losing 2 boats within 2 boat lengths of the finish. We let it go, and entered race 5, the final race of the regatta with high expectations.
We started race 5, with a bit of a rough start, but played the coarse nicely and rounded the top mark around 5th with a big gap. Having experimented with reaching the entire regatta, we finally found a fast solution. We passed two boats on the first reach! Rounded the reach mark and lost one back on the second reach, rounding the leeward mark in 4th. Battling back and forth with 3rd, 4th, and 5th place the entire second leg. we found ourselves in 3rd within 50 yards of the finish. 4th and 5th split, sides so I chose to cover 4th place, the regatta leader going into the day. After converging in the middle of the coarse 5th place had passed both of us. We were in 4th with 20 yards to the finish. The 3rd place boat goes take for take with me within the last 15 yards and I end up losing 2 boats again by 2 boat lengths of the finish.
We ended the regatta in 8th place of 25 boats, having increased our scores over the coarse of the regatta. It was a great experience that I would not trade for anything. I could not have done this without the help of SDYC competition committee. Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Scott Sinks