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2007 North American Championships
by David Rumbaugh
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This years Championships came back to Southern California and the ABYC. I would first like to say thank you to Mike Shea for putting together a quality event. ABYC, for those of you that have not been there before, is an exceptional club that hosts many top level racing events though out the year. Last of all I would like to thank all the participants at this year’s event. The other people on the race course, is what truly makes a regatta special! It was a pleasure to meet some of the long time C15 racers from SoCal that I have not gotten a chance to meet and sail against before.
Steve Fishman and I showed up on Thursday with some big plans for the day. He needed to fit a new centerboard into his boat and I had plans of cleaning and polishing the bottom of my boat. We also wanted to get out on the water and get a feel for the conditions out there. As we started working on the boats, it became clear that we would not get out on the boat that day. The forecast was calling for lots of heat over the weekend which many people around the yard muttered about having no wind as well. Not what we had hoped for!
Friday morning was a complete surprise to everyone at the club. The temperature was warm but the breeze was already up. We got out to the racecourse and the winds were blowing in the mid-teens and we would see winds up to about 18 that day. With the wind came lots of chop. Not the best conditions if your boat is from 1979. Terance showed his local knowledge and was blazing fast upwind. He posted a perfect day with three bullets and took home the Syd Corp trophy. Mike Shea also showed his local knowledge and boat speed this day posting a 2,2,3 for second. Anne and I finished the day with scores of 3,3,2 and third place. Not the first day we had hoped for, but now we were hoping that the CURSE (Syd Corp Curse) would come back to haunt the SoCal boys.
Saturday morning saw higher than normal temps for the area and a little less wind. Winds were more in the lower teens, something like 8-12 maybe 14 range. Less wind meant less wind chop and Anne and I were very happy to see these conditions. The first race started and our start was at the pin end of the line and underneath a boat (Not a good one!), but we were able to tack out to the right for clean air. When we came back onto Starboard we were ahead of the fleet and feeling good. These conditions are perfect for Anne and I. It was nice to look around and see that at times she was the only person on the trap. With three good starts we ended the day with scores of 1,2 (it does not pay to over stand the windward mark), 1, 1. Since the rest of the fleet was really mixing it up behind us we had a solid cushion of around 9 points on this regatta and the title. Terance had a total of 14pts, Alex Fishman finished with 15 pts, Mike Shea had 17 pts, and Joe O’Reilly had 18.
Sunday came and Anne and I talked about being somewhat conservative so as to not make any big mistakes that would hurt our chances. We liked the conditions at first. Winds were even lighter on Sunday which would seem to favor us again. Boy would we be wrong. Mike Shea came out to battle and showed great boat speed and tactics finishing with a 1, 1, 3. Sunday’s strong finish allowed Mike to jump into second place for the regatta. Steve and Alex Fishman also showed there true form with scores of 2, 2 and then leading the last race until the second lap they decided to split with the rest of the guys. They went from first to eighth at the last weather mark, but were able to catch up a few spots to finish the last race in 5th. Terrence ended the event with scores of 5, 5, 1 and could not catch the Fishman’s for 3rd place. He finished one point behind them in 4th. Anne and I finished the regatta with scores of 3, 3, 2 which meant we had done enough to secure the crown this time around. This was our third try at the Championship and boy was it a sweet ending for us. It was a great sail back to the club knowing that we had finally won the big one. The Cup would be coming home with us to Northern California!
On a final note we decided to have next years Championships in Half Moon Bay, Ca. We hope to see everyone again at next years event. IF you didn’t make it out to this event please make it next year. Charlie will provide the wind this time around.