Nine I-14’s headed down to San Diego over the weekend for SuperCup held out of San Diego Yacht Club. SuperCup is a great 14 skiff event held on the bay with short courses showcasing a mid course gate that you have to sail through both upwind and downwind. All of the races were twice around with three minute starts and the race committee kept the boats rolling by sending off the starts quickly.
What sight is more beautiful than a cluster of Stars floating low in the sky over the Pacific Ocean... the Star boat that is. Sailors and spectators can enjoy the view of the International Star Class Western Hemisphere Championship from Wednesday, May 22 through Saturday, May 25. Nearly 30 Stars are headed to San Diego in less than a month and will be making their way southeast of Point Loma for a four-day series of ocean races.
The pressure was on at the Etchells Midwinters West, the only regatta of the Etchells West Coast Spring Series with no throw-out score option. All three days were full of tight, fast racing with intense competition, but Eric Doyle, sailing on USA 1177 with crew Patrick Powell and Justin Mendham, has a good start to the top spot on the series podium by finishing first this weekend.
Eric Doyle has been skippering the event for a couple of years, but has experience crewing for other Etchells sailors during this regatta too many times to count. "Once we had confidence that our rig tune and sail trim was correct and we were fast, we used excellent starts and conservative tactics to make sure we were always in the front of the fleet. We didn't have to take many risks and just kept chipping away at good finishes over the long series."
Congratulations to Team SDYC, winners of the Palmer Cup Grandmasters Team Race at Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Teams raced in a fleet of Harbor 20s, with 7 teams from across the country competing. Team SDYC was represented by Ben Mitchell / Brad Rodi, Bill Campbell / Jed Olenick, and Tim Fuller / Chuck Sinks.
Will Cyr (USA) will be nominated for the Formula Kite event at the 2019 Pan American Games this July in Peru. Cyr, along with four other USA competitors, battled it out for the qualifying spot as the top USA finisher in San Diego Yacht Club’s Kiteboarding Spring Regatta and USA Pan Am Games Athlete qualifier, on March 29-31, 2019. Selection for the Pan Am Games is processed by the USOC after US Sailing nominates all of the athletes.
As a three-time winner of the Butler Cup, all I wanted for my birthday this year was one more. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. It seems like each year the Long Beach Yacht Club symmetrical pole Catalina 37s get more physically demanding, we just get older… or maybe a bit of both. On Saturday morning last weekend, on a sunny but cool day in California, after a few last minute rearrangements of the crew list, I quickly realized I was one of the more ‘senior members’ of the team and sailing for the first time with over half of the group.
Fifty J/70’s reveled in gorgeous Biscayne Bay conditions on February 22 - 24 for the International J/70 Midwinter Championship. This event, hosted by Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, FL, was also a qualifier for the 2020 World Championship to be hosted by California Yacht Club (2 Open berths and 1 Corinthian berth). Miami delivered its renowned weather with sunny skies, temperatures in the low 80s and winds between 8-20 knots for the nine race series. With multiple J70 world champions, Olympic medalists and many other champion sailors competing, the competition was incredible. San Diego Yacht Club’s Bruce Golison with his team of Steve Hunt, Erik Shampain and Jeff Reynolds were one of the teams to watch for the championship going into the event.
Last weekend our SDYC team traveled to San Francisco to match race J22’s at the 2019 California Dreamin’ Series stop #1 (of 3 to be held). Our team of Mike Nicoletti, Kara Voss and Drew Guay arrived to the St. Francis Yacht Club early on Saturday morning to weigh in, attending the competitors briefing and rig & tune up. We were met with cold weather, rain and breeze on conditions. I got off to a slow start earning us a black flag in race 1 for some overly aggressive maneuvers. However we recovered quickly and only lost one more race the rest of the day. By Sunday the rain had let up but so had the wind and the current was ripping now, so the competition and racecourses were fierce. We finished most of the second round robin on Sunday before the breeze completely died and a lightning storm arrived winning all but two races (one of which we led at the last weather mark in) and did well enough to earn second overall. Since this was the first regatta of the season for our team (and we had a new teammate as well), we were glad to have had the opportunity to sail together across a wide range of conditions the SF bay can deliver. This event gave us a solid foundation to build on as we go into the May United States Match Race Qualifier to be held in the same venue and boats in two months time. Meanwhile, In two weekends (March 23rd) we head to Long Beach to race Catalina 37’s in the Butler Cup, followed a week later by the Ficker Cup, a Grade 2 event.
We would like to thank the Comp Fund and SDYC for supporting our match racing in 2019 and our team is looking forward to more successful results in the many match race events still to come this season.
There have been many exciting developments since our February Mainsheet update! Two IC37 training and practice platforms – East Coast and West Coast, plus Training Sails and more...
With the help of Rick Merriman, Team SDYC has secured a co-charter from the NYYC fleet of 20 brand new club owned IC37’s this summer. This will allow the Team to gain valuable boat on boat racing and practice time in the Newport, RI venue prior to the September NYYC Invitational Cup.
Team SDYC plans to sail in Newport from June 29 - July 7, competing in two regattas during that time: The NYYC One Design Regatta and the Sail Newport Regatta, with full practice days in between. Additional events are being considered. A training partner for practice days has also been engaged. The Team worked very hard to secure a co—charter arrangement with a NYYC member in order to lower the cost as much as possible for the team.