Diaz Master of the Masters!

(San Diego, CA)- Established in 1975, the International Masters Regatta hosted 12 notable teams on San Diego Bay for an 11-race round robin event in J/105s; the event features the best master sailors from around the world and was hosted by San Diego Yacht Club for the third time in the regatta’s history.

A newcomer to the event, Augie Diaz took the lead on day one, and while he stumbled dramatically on day two, he managed to survive the ferocious competitors and masters of the game to take the title. However you look at it, Miami’s perennial one-design champion (J/24s, Stars, Snipes) from Coral Reef YC had a far tougher go of it than what appears in the final standings.

Starting on Friday, anyone that headed out to San Diego Bay was likely to witness some of sailing’s most legendary skippers show exactly why they’ve earned the reputation as the best in the business. The opening races saw extremely shifty winds with moderate pressure, making for drastic lead changes throughout the racing.  Talk about a day of “chutes & ladders”, even last year’s regatta winner was a bit exasperated!  With the winds not filling in until 1:00pm, the SDYC PRO was only able to fit three races into the regatta’s first day of competition.

Gary Jobson and Donny Martin both led the scoreboards at different points during the first day, but unable to predict the shifty breezes, Jobson finished the day in fourth place with Martin trailing behind in fifth.

Ultimately, it was Diaz who was able to best navigate the shifting breezes. He finished the three races of the day with a 3-3-1 for 7 pts to take hold of the top spot on the scoreboard. Skippers Bob Fisher (4-4-2 for 10 pts) and Dennis Durgan (5-1-5 for 11 pts) filled the day’s second and third overall spots.  At this point, the familiar banter on the dock after-party amongst the cognoscenti was quite amusing, something about how could a one-design World Champion and a Congressional Cup champion be bracketed by “journalists” like Fisher and Jobson?  Needless to say, the banter was about to be amplified by several magnitudes because of the outcome after Saturday’s racing.

To regress for one minute, one must understand the dynamics of both the competitors and the sailing area in San Diego Bay. The regatta is sailed in matched J/105 one-designs (all sails are supplied by North Sails and are identical) and the buoy-racing takes place inside the beautiful bay in front of San Diegoʼs gorgeous waterfront.  In the gentile sea breezes of 8-15 kts, the starts are often right up against the enormous USS MIDWAY, a US Navy aircraft carrier that saw duty in World War II.  To make matters more interesting, the fleet often sails long starboard tacks alongside the newest US Navy nuclear carriers in for their periodic overhauls, like the USS NIMITZ, with the fleet playing the shift and compression puff along their 1,200 foot length and 20-story tall topsides.  Calling for “room to tack” is often a hot topic amongst the cagey’ole master skippers and tacticians!  In short, with 0.6nm windward legs, it’s just “college-style racing” in 35 ft boats.

While Diaz was desperately figuring out what to do for Saturday’s racing with breezes that were funneling down along the giant aircraft carrier, or down the center of the course, or gently touching down just over Harbor Island’s Sheraton Hotel Complex next to San Diego Airport (yes, right on the waterfront), others were simply skating by both upwind and downwind.  One of those teams was Bob Fisher’s Team FISH, posting an astonishing 3-5-2-11 (for an 80 yrs old guy)!  The 11th was due to Bob’s knee giving out into the tiller while rounding overlapped for 1st place in the last race, resulting in a “love tap” with another competitor and having to do a 720 turn to absolve themselves.  Nevertheless, the result was that “The Fish” was in first place overall!? In the regatta?! Many an Olympic Medallist and World Champion were a bit humbled, or perhaps aghast!  To say that many would be amused became self-evident during the Saturday evening’s “team roast” and introductions. More on that element of fun amongst some of the world’s sailing icons in a moment.

Saturday afternoon brought in steady winds ranging from 9 to 12 kts and set the stage for a total of four highly competitive races. By the end of the day, it was Bob Fisher who led the regatta (4-4-2-3-5-2-11), followed by Gary Jobson (2-2-10-5-8-4-5) and Augie Diaz (3-3-1-6-3-10-10) who sat five points behind the leader Fisher. However, even with picture perfect San Diego racing conditions, the regatta’s most memorable moments on Saturday happened off the water.  In an annual tradition, each of the 12 skippers shared the stories they have collected over decades of sailing by introducing their crews with speeches that are equal parts comedy roast and commendation.  It starts with who’s in last and ends with who’s in first place that Saturday evening— e.g. from Ehman to Fisher!!  Naturally, the antagonists, anarchists and protagonists had a field day!

Sports commentator Gary Jobson, whose Olympic coverage won a 1998 Emmy Award, and professional spokesperson for the America’s Cup Tom Ehman, were among the crowd favorites, proving even further this group of skippers truly knows everything about sailing, both on and off the water.  The “Fish”, of course, had the last laugh, a journalist of extraordinary repute having fun with quite literally all of his “comrades-in-arms” over a half-century in the sailing world.  After all, while reporting about all his comrades exploits in the world of sailing, why, indeed, would he be at the top of the heap of some of the world’s best sailors!?

The final day of the regatta brought shifting winds, but the SDYC PRO worked hard to spot the steadiest locations, moving the course and weather marks accordingly.  In short, the last day was a bit of a “crap shoot”.  The wind fluctuated from 195 to 240 on average with some shifts to 290 degrees.  Wind speeds ranged from 0 kts to 6 kts.  The first two races were started late after a number of general recalls.  Managing the shifty winds best was Diaz, posting a 3-1-5-3 to win the regatta by 8 pts.  Fittingly, Don Trask sailed beautifully on the last day to grab 2nd overall.  Jon Wright took 3rd and Jobson took 4th.

Overall, competitors had a great time sailing out on the beautiful San Diego Bay. For many of them, this regatta is not just a competition to see who can still sail the fastest, but also a way to see familiar faces. Several of the skippers were also college rivals, turning the Masters regatta into a rematch of sorts. Bill Campbell, crewing for childhood friend Gary Jobson said, “I had a great time. The competition was excellent and all the competitors want to do well. But they also want to spend time with people they have known for many years, and catch up with their lives and families. It’s a regatta with a bunch of guys and women who are simply happy to be able to continue competing in the sport we have known and loved for most of our lives.”

Diaz wasn’t the only one to walk away with a trophy on Sunday, as Malin Burnham, the force that makes the regatta possible, introduced a new tradition into the competition. The last place finisher Tom Ehman was awarded with the “Silver Shovel Trophy” (Tom Ehman seen here presented with the trophy by Regatta Chairman- Jeff Brown of JK3 Yachts), which as Burnham describes is to help “shovel yourself out of last place for next year.” Though it’s a new tradition, the shovel already represents what this regatta is about: a fun (and sometimes funny) way to honor the legends of the sport.   Sailing photo credits- Cynthia Sinclair   For more J/105 Masters sailing information