Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Cal YC Wins J/105 Lipton Cup

J/105 one-design sailboats- sailing Lipton Cup- San Diego (San Diego, CA)- This year's prestigious Sir Thomas Lipton Cup Regatta promised to be one of the most challenging editions ever in the 98 year history of the event. There were two signifiant milestones for the sailors that elevated the game for all competitors from around America. First and foremost, the San Diego YC's remarkable cadre of enthusiastic, supportive sailors decided to invest in twelve identical suits of J/105 sails from their local North Sails Loft (for those history buffs, this is the place where Lowell North, founder of North Sails, started his little business). Secondly, the SDYC Lipton Cup Committee also decided to open up the event from a SoCal "club championship" to one with broader national appeal, inviting three clubs to participate for this year's event- New York YC, St Francis YC and Southern YC.  When the dust cleared from the field of battle on San Diego Bay, the "newcomers" gave it their all and nearly pulled off an upset, but it was California YC's "Peaches" Little and team that were crowned the 2012 Lipton Cup Champions.

J/105 sailing upwind at Lipton Cup- San DiegoThe weather forecasts for the regatta initially looked a bit like the "fresh-to-frightening" variety, with a massive Low spinning out of the Gulf of Alaska and whipping up its fury as it spun towards the California coastline.  One thing's for sure, the surfers were certainly excited about it-- with promise of 10-15 ft surf on their favorite surf breaks offshore.  For the sailors, the prospect of big breeze, leaden grey skies and rain was nothing like what the San Diego Chamber of Commerce promised for "typical" San Diego weather conditions.

J/105 sailboats- sailing downwind at Lipton Cup San DiegoWhile Friday dawned a bit grey, it soon cleared up to a partly cloudy, sunny day with good breeze from the "normal" sea breeze direction of 275-285 at 8-15 kts inside the San Diego Harbor-- amazing, the sailors were blessed beyond belief!  As a result, the 12 boat fleet of J/105s enjoyed most excellent racing in the natural sailing amphitheater of San Diego Bay surrounded by three islands- Coronado Island, Shelter Island and Harbor Island.  There was only one big hiccup to the proceedings on the first day, a significant "bumper car" situation at the first weather mark in the second race ended up having two boats becoming instantly OOC (out of commission).  So, after racing two good races, the fleet was sent home to repair boat wounds and sore muscles.  Tied for the lead after the first day were San Diego YC and St Francis YC with several clubs just behind them, including Coronado YC, Newport Harbor YC and Southwestern YC.

J/105 sailboat fleet sailing upwind in San Diego Lipton CupFor the second day of racing, the Lipton Cup PRO wisely decided to start earlier by one hour due to the amazing forecast for Saturday's racing- 10-15 kts gusting to 20 kts from 275-285 (remember, this is the usual direction).  And so it was.  After five fantastic, incredibly close races, the sailors all returned home a bit worse for wear and tear.  With 10-15 minute boat-swapping turn-arounds between each race that entailed sailing over to the "change-dock", unloading all your personal gear, spinnaker, tools, food/drink, then moving over to the new boat, sailing back to the start, re-attaching the spinnaker, storing all the gear, checking the wind, checking the jib-sheet leads and halyard tension, checking the mainsail setup and ensuring your spinnaker wasn't twisted by hoisting it temporarily, it was understandable that most crews were pretty exhausted by early Saturday evening. At the end of this marathon of four "sausages" (4 windward-leewards) and the one last 3-legger, the crews were quite ready to either sleep or find a massage therapist fast with a good dosage of pain-killing Advil tossed in for good measure.  With seven races under their belts, the standings took a dramatic change as the wind blew hard for at least three races of the five.  Standing out from the crowd with 3 bullets in the first three races was Coronado YC to take over the lead for the regatta.  Another big mover was New York YC with two bullets in the last two races, enough to pull them within striking distance of the lead along with several other clubs, including California YC, San Diego YC, St Francis YC, San Francisco YC and Newport Harbor YC.

J/105 sailboats sailing downwind on San Diego waterfrontThe stage was now set for the third and final day of racing.  The weather forecast could not have been worse.  A weak gradient from the ESE in the early morning hours was supposed to persist until noon, then slowly fill-in for what appeared to be a "drift-a-thon".  Thankfully, the SDYC's PRO was blessed yet again.  Mercifully, the wind died by mid-morning and the rapid heating of the Tijuana mountains to the southeast meant the proverbial NW breeze from 275-285 would develop with a range of 6-12 kts, enough to get in four final races on Sunday! The biggest determinant of performance in the first 2-3 races was how each team factored in the strong ebb current before it finally started to change mid-afternoon into a flood current along the Harbor Island shoreline.  Local knowledge helped to some degree.  But, again, good/bad starts and tactical calls would make enormous differences for each team as they struggled with the breeze lane along the "USS Carl Vincent" (a massive 1,100 ft, 20-story high nuclear carrier parked along the left (south) side of the course and the Harbor Island starboard lifts dropping into the course from the shoreline along the right (north) side of the course.  In the end, it was Cal YC's Bob "Peaches" Little that avoided any big pitfalls race-to-race to win by just 3 pts.  Second was local San Diego YC sailing champion Chuck Driscoll finishing with 49 points.  After a fabulous day of sailing Saturday, the Coronado YC boys had rough going the last day, whatever "lucky charm" they had simply faded away, ending up third for the regatta with 55 pts.  After being in a tie for the lead on the first day, it was yet another tale of "two days" for Russ Silvestri and crew aboard the St Francis YC team, finishing with 57 pts, narrowly missing the podium on the last leg of the last race.  Rounding out the top five was the current J/105 North American Champion, Chris Perkins sailing for San Francisco YC with 66 pts.

The Lipton Cup Regatta marked the end of the remarkable four weekends of J/105 sailing in San Diego.  All four events were managed very well by San Diego YC's band of 100+ volunteers, excellent RC/PRO and it sponsors (including J/Boats dealer Jeff & Karen Brown's JK3 Yachting as both sponsors and Chairs of Committees for the various events).  Kudos to all and a testimonial to what excellent planning and execution can do to make it a memorable series of events for many sailors from across America.  If the chatter on the dock and the deck of San Diego YC was any indication of the fun and camaraderie amongst all the sailors, the future sure looks bright for the J/105 Masters and the Lipton Cup in 2013 and beyond!   Sailing photo credits- Mark Albertazzi (www.kaimaka.com)   For more J/105 Lipton Cup sailing information