Sunday was a short but exciting last day of the 2017 A-Cat North American Championship. Competitors completed the last two races of the series in beautiful chamber of commerce winds, for a total of 11 races throughout 4 days.
San Diego saved it’s best breeze for Sunday, with the wind at 16 knots for the day’s first race which started at 11:30am. Race Committee started the first race earlier to allow competitors extra time to tune their boats for the breeze. Due to the faster wind speeds, Race Committee lengthened the course to 1.1 nm. At 12:30pm, the wind slowed to an average of 13 knots for Sunday’s second race, which was five legs.
The consensus from competitors today was that day 3 (Saturday) of the 2017 A-Cat North American Championship was the most challenging day yet due to lighter winds and kelp on the race course. Despite the obstacles, Race Committee was able to get races 7-9 of the series off, leaving 2 races for tomorrow until the North American champion is named.
With the wind at 4-5 knots at the scheduled start time, Race Committee raised the AP flag and wasn’t able to start the first race until 1:45pm. Once racing began, each race went rather quickly as the wind speed got up to about 10 knots. Race Committee ran course two all day, changing bearings for each race as the wind direction shifted.
Day two of the 2017 A-Cat North American Championship was characterized by lighter winds and consistent competition. The 32 competitors completed races 4-6 of the series, with 3 races scheduled for Saturday and 2 for Sunday.
Race Committee described Friday as a “righty day” with the wind direction at 300+ for most of the day. The forecasted wind was around 10-15 knots, but unfortunately the wind didn’t fill in like it was supposed to and was more in the 6-9 knot range all day. Regardless, the day was sunny, the water was flat, and the foiling boats foiled.
San Diego displayed a healthy amount of breeze for the first day of the 2017 A-Cat North American Championship. There are 32 sailors out in the waters of Crown Cove in South San Diego Bay competing for the title of A-Cat North American Champion. Today sailors finished the first three races of the four day event.
The first race of the day was abandoned due to Race Committee error- RC failed to signal which course was being sailed. While there was a lengthy discussion at Thursday night’s skippers meeting and a general agreement on which course to sail, not all the competitors were present at the meeting and no changes to the sailing instructions were made. Therefore, RC abandoned the race and the first race that they scored started at 1pm. Races generally lasted 23-28 mins and competitors sailed course 2.
With one month until the 2017 Lipton Cup, we checked in with Team SDYC to see how preparations are going. Skippered by SDYC hero, Tyler Sinks, the team has won the 2011, 2013, and 2015 Lipton Cup Regattas – every other year for the past 6 years. Can Sinks, along with crew members Jake La Dow, Chris Busch, Jake Reynolds, Erik Shampain, Melissa Denman, and Max Hutcheson, stick to the pattern and take the title for 2017?