Pacific Coast Championship

Alamitos Bay, July 12-13, 2014. Aine McLean & Matt Cappetta win the regatta.

Just days before her 40th birthday, Aine McLean Fretwell wins the Snipe PCCs with crew Matt Cappetta! Already the current ACC champ as crew, this completes the circuit. Both coasts, both ends of the boat!

… report, photo gallery and results …

Courtesy of SCIRA USA

 

Sunday’s weather: Wind 8-12k SW; sunny, high temp. 78F.

The message sent by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club’s Fourth of July Regatta was that little boats aren’t just for kids.

The two most prominent winners were Aine McLean Fretwell, who will celebrate her 40th birthday next Wednesday, and Chris Raab, a small boat master who may not still remember that milestone.

Fretwell, although measuring 5 feet 2 1/2 inches in height, is a mother of three from Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego. With teenager Matt Cappetta as crew, she won the Snipe class Pacific Coast Championship linked into the regatta with four second places, wins in Sunday’s last two races and an earlier fifth-place she was able to discard.

She was the only female skipper in the 10-boat fleet. And, by the way, her last name was misspelled Pretwell in Saturday’s report. It will be remembered next time.

Raab, with Scott McKeiver as crew, won the last six of nine races to bury the Lido 14 dinghy competition in a buildup to that class’s Nationals at ABYC next month.

Fretwell said: “I’m thinking I may wake up from one wild dream. This is the big one for me. I’ve done well in some women’s events, but I like to compete with all the sailors.”

She beat out three-time PCC winner and current Snipe district champion Doug Hart by 17 points and first-day leader Eric Heim
by 21

“We weren’t aggressive enough in playing the conditions,” Heim said. “Aine was just fast all weekend. She owned it.”

The breeze rose just to whitecap level at 10 to 12 knots Sunday, and she and Cappetta thrived in it.

But it was interesting that she came up short of a crew only two days before the event.

“She called me Thursday,” said Cappetta, 18, who learned the ropes with Fretwell as his coach at The Bishops School in La Jolla last year.

Someday soon her own kids may join her on the boat. She has a daughter, 9, and twins son and daughter, age 6. They may be back.

“This is really fun,” she said. “I love sailing out here.”

So does Raab, who has also excelled in Cal 20s and Lasers.

“We put in a little training, with the Nationals coming up,” he said.

Three fleets—Viper 640s, Cal 20s and Tempests—were eliminated from competing because of an electrical breakdown in the boat hoists earlier in the week. The smaller Snipes were able to launch manually using ABYC’s small hoist.

All others—16 Lidos and 29 Naples Sabots—launched from the ramp.

The regatta is one of ABYC’s four traditional holiday sailfests, following May’s Memorial Day Regatta and preceding the Labor Day and Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) regattas yet to come.

Regatta information

Class winners

Ocean classes
(7 races; 1 throwout)

SNIPE (10 boats)—Aine Fretwell/Matt Cappetta,
Mission Bay YC, 2-(5)-2-2-2-1-1, 10 points.

Rank	Fleet	SailNo	HelmName	CrewName	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Total	Nett
1st	Snipe	29248	Aine McLean Fretwell	Matt Cappetta	Mission Bay YC	2	(5)	2	2	2	1	1	15	10
2nd	Snipe	29941	Doug Hart	Ryan Hopps	Mission Bay YC	3	2	(5)	3	1	4	4	22	17
3rd	Snipe	30337	Eric Heim	Aimee Heim	San Diego YC	4	1	4	1	3	6	(8)	27	19
4th	Snipe	30800	Rick Arneson	Diana Waterbury	San Diego YC	1	4	3	4	(5)	5	3	25	20
5th	Snipe	30733	Packy Davis	Jessica O’Neill	St Francis YC	(9)	3	1	5	7	2	7	34	25
6th	Snipe	29316	Mark Ryan	Nicholas Santos	Alamitos Bay YC	(8)	7	7	6	4	3	6	41	33
7th	Snipe	30687	Seth Siegler	Ben Constant	Mission Bay YC	6	(10)	6	7	6	7	2	44	34
8th	Snipe	23965	Matt Hecht	Claire Reidman	Mission Bay YC	10	6	8	(12 DNC)	9	8	5	58	46
9th	Snipe	29539	Tom O’Neill	Laurel O’Neill	Mission Bay YC	7	8	9	8	8	9	(10)	59	49
10th	Snipe	29109	Stuart Robertson		Mission Bay YC	5	9	(10)	9	10	10	9	62	52
11th	Snipe	30618	Don Bedford		Mission Bay YC	(12 DNC)	12 DNC	12 DNC	12 DNC	12 DNC	12 DNC	12 DNC	84	72