The 52nd annual Star Rollins Bowl was held at SDYC on the weekend of May 31/June1. We had a small but strong fleet of ten enthusiastic Star sailors including two former world champions. Several teams came in from out of town, rolling in Saturday morning towing their Star boats. With everyone’s help masts were raised, boats were splashed and ready for the weekend’s racing.
It was a stunningly beautiful weekend with sparkling clear skies, Finback whales swimming through the course, and steady westerlies of 8 to 12 knots allowing the crews to droop hike throughout the weekend. Susi Graf and Jim Person alternated days as PRO, and with their great race committee team were able to get in five good races for the regatta. After a fun day of racing on Saturday everyone put their boats away for the day and headed on up to Ruth Rollins’ house for the annual Rollins Bowl party/dinner that Ruth graciously hosts every year. On behalf of the San Diego Bay Star Fleet I would like to thank Ruth for her continuing support of the Fleet over the years.
Sunday morning MBYC’s Kyle Henehan with crew Jeremy Davidson showed up to join the fun in Star #6840 to represent the "Classic" Fleet. Due to missing the first day of racing they finished last overall but placed sixth in race 4 so were quite pleased with their endeavors. After racing on Sunday the trophy presentation was held on the veranda outside the bar where everyone drank beer, ate appetizers, and socialized. Local boy and former World Champion George Szabo with crew Craig Moss topped the podium and were awarded the Rollins Bowl perpetual, followed in second by SDYC member and former World Champion Eric Doyle with crew Payson Infelise. Rounding out the podium in third was SDYC Director Mike Dorgan with son Matt as crew. A shout out goes to 7th place finisher Jacqueline Campbell with husband Andrew as crew for helming her first Star boat regatta (Andrew placed 2nd in the 2013 Star Worlds). Last but not least, many thanks go to Kirsten Hecht of Sailing Supply for arranging for Zhik to donate the trophies for the event.
By Mark Butler, Regatta Chair