On the rainy morning of October 15th, Team SDYC piled into the cars and headed north to Long Beach for the Linda Elias Memorial Women’s One-Design (LEMWOD) Challenge. The regatta is sailed in identical Catalina 37s, each crew consisting of 10-15 women. This was the first regatta that I skippered a Catalina 37. Team SDYC consisted of Samantha Treadwell, Stacey Szabo, Lauren Maxam, Summer Greene, Tammy Fowles, Lisa-Marie Terhaar, Lois Harrington, Karen Butler, and Kathy O’Brien.
Friday was a practice day, in which all teams participated. After some boat handling practice, the race committee ran ten practice starts. These were quite exciting as all nine teams were pushing the line hard. Shala Lawrence came out to coach the team, which was a huge benefit.
Saturday’s racing started in very light breeze, with most of the first race sailed in about 3 knots. Fortunately the wind filled in a little for the remainder of the day, and we managed to sail the scheduled 4 races. At the end of the day we were in fifth so we knew we had our work cut out for us.
The weather conditions were almost identical on Sunday, but more shifty for the 3 races. During the first start on Sunday, the Cal Yacht Club team was poked out and at the gun, 6 of their crew were instantly in the water. Their lower starboard lifeline had broken, there was some confusion, but the race committee and another competitor helped retrieve everyone. Through excellent crew work and tactics from Stacey Szabo, we managed to move up in the rankings by the end of the competition.
Team SWYC, steered by Colleen Cooke won with 23 points. In second was Team NHYC, skippered by Suzanne Spangler, with 28 points followed by Team SDYC also with 28 points. To congratulate Colleen in her first LEMWOD win, Summer Greene and Lisa-Marie Terhaar threw her in the water, although the Southwestern crew decided that meant I should also enjoy a dip.
Team SDYC’s good placing could not have happened without the generous support from the Competition Fund and Challenge Committee. We also want to thank Mike Dorgan and Steve Wright for loaning us their boat to practice on in San Diego. Carolann Dekker, of Top Dekk, generously provided adorable team gear bags.
Although the sun never broke through, the rain did hold off for most of the weekend, a good time was had by all and we enjoyed some excellent competitive racing.