Saturday morning dawned clear and cool as the fleet rigged up at ABYC. George Walker said to me as we rigged our boat next to his around 9:30 that morning, "you know what it means when it's blowing 8 knots in the parking lot at 9:30 in the morning in Long Beach don't you Chris?". I said, "it's going to blow?", getting that little sick feeling in my stomach. George gave me a "a huh" and he was right at least on Saturday.
Saturday's racing featured 18-22 knots of wind on a racecourse set just outside the lee of the Los Angeles Breakwater. This gave the fleet some great rides on reaches of the triangle courses Race Chairman, Chris Erickson, wisely decided to set. Slugging it out upwind wasn't quite as much fun as the right side of the course (typical Long Beach) really seemed to pay. The hard work upwind has a great payoff as the downwind sailing was truly exceptional. If the temperature had only been 10 degrees higher (both water and air) it would have been awesome (guess you have to do the circuit for that!!!). There were a few blue lips and chattering teeth at the end of Saturday's three races.
At the end of Saturday George Szabo, Jack Franco and Chris Snow were tightly grouped at the top all within one point of each other. Doug Hart/Scott Lindley had the day from hell having done a number of unwanted circles right after the start of the first race and finishing poorly for them but wound up with a very respectable third place in the third race of the day to finish the day on a higher note.
Sunday morning came clear again and both San Clemente Island and Catlaina Island were very clearly visible from the coast. This is normally a good indication of breeze to come and there were some sore muscles in the parking lot that didn;t want to see that happen. They were in luck as our old Southern California friend Catalina Eddy and his pal El Nino paid the fleet a visit.
What looked at first to be a classic "bang the right corner" day turned into a "hit the left corner but not so hard" kind of day. In the first race of two scheduled for Sunday, Snow found himself in the cheap seats at the first weather mark and proceeded to foul the regatta up even worse by rear ending Holly and Gavin O'hare at the weather mark. After doing a quick 720 there wasn't much else to do but hang in there and hope for the best. With a lot of the fleet lulled into heading right Snow and Dornberg took a clearing tack to the left with Jerome Fournier/Tom Fisher and Rusell Oring/Gus Wirth coming too. Five minutes later Eddy and El Nino paid their visit and the breeze went from somewhere right of 200 to left of 180 degrees. This brought the Fournier, Oiring, Snow trio to the weather mark 1,2,3. Eventually Snow won the race with Fournier in second and Argyle Campbell and Brian Janney showing good speed and smarts to come I third. There was some major hair loss as Szabo suffered a 10th, Franco a 5th and Hart a 16th.
Going into the last race, Franco had to be second or better and Szabo had to win with Snow being third or worse. As the beeze was light anything could happen. Franco got a awesome start at the leeward end and crossed the fleet by 4-5 boatlengths headed right in what looked sure to be a wire to wire victory. Szabo got a good start and was in the top group off the line heading middle/right. Shortly after the start the right faded big time and Franco who now had most of the fleet to his left packed it in as his finish could be no worse than third. Szabo continued battling and near the finish line was right a the front of the fleet. A late left shift borught Doug Hart/Scott Lindley in frst place with George in second. Snow took a throwout 7th and the regatta was over.
Many thanks to ABYC for another event. Chris Erickson did a great job running the races and Todd Smith did a wonderful job as regatta chairman. Thanks the Cathy Black for designing the trophies and North, Sobstad and Ullman Sails and many others I'm sure for the sponsorships.
1 Chris Snow/Yumio Durnberg 8.5 2 George Szabo/John Carroll 9.0 3 Jack Franco/Jeff Baker 11.75 4 Doug Hart/Scott Lindley 18.75 5 Randy Lake/Jennifer Warnock 20.75 6 Chuck Tripp/Stacie Dumain 25.00 7 Argyle Campbell/Brian Janney 26.00 8 Jim Grubbs/Collette McKeever 28.00 9 Dave Tillson/Barbie Tillson 31.00 10 Ken Redler/Julie Manzer 34.00 11 Jeff McDermaind/Nancy Grubbs 35.00 12 Steve Stewart/Kenyon Martin 45.00 13 Jerome Fournier/Tom Fisher 45.00 14 Gavin O'Hare/Holly O'Hare 51.00 15 Sean Biehl/Jerelyn Biehl 52.00 16 Russell Oiring/Gus Wirth5 8.00 17 Keith Dodson/Kathy Tevlie 61.00 18 Jerry Thompson/Renee Bartell 61.00 19 Jeff Lenhart/Becky Lenhart 65.00 20 Jorge Suarez/Shelly Suarez 84.00 21 Tim Forderer/Teddy Wood 87.00 22 Tom O'Neill/Laurel Timpson 92.00 23 George Walker/Carolyn Brown 101.00--Chris Snow