2005 5th District Championship

Report by Erik Lidecis 

Mike and I sailed our first regatta with the new boat,
Memorial Day weekend in San Diego.  18 boats showed up for what would be a great regatta.  Many of the best names in the Starclass were in attendance.  Three races were held on Saturday in a 6-10 knot Southwesterly.  The first race was a 4 leg windward-leeward.  The wind was 230 degrees at the start.  We had a good start, near the pin, played the left side of the course , and rounded the first mark in first place.The wind had gone left 20 degrees, and the run was actually a reach.  Five boats got on our hip and rolled us to windward.  Andy MacDonald was first to roll us.  He jumped out to a good lead, and never looked back.  Will Stout was second.  We never recovered from our misfortune, and  wound up picking up one boat for fifth place.  

The second race of the day featured the same course, and the wind had shifted back to the right.  We had a good start, near the pin, and again played the left side of the course.  We rounded the top mark in second place, behind George Szabo.  We jibed out too early and lost four boats by the leeward mark.  Rick Merriman rounded the leeward mark in first, followed by George, Will, and Bill Hardesty.  The second beat was left favored again.  We had great upwind leg and managed to take the lead at the top mark, with Rick Merriman right on our heels.  We held him off on the final run to win the race.  

The third race of the day was a 5 legger.  The wind was 230 degrees.  We had another good start, playing the right middle of the course.  We jumped out to a good lead, but right at the top mark the wind went left, and we lost four boats.  Ben Mitchell rounded first, followed by Will Stout, George Szabo, Bill Hardesty, then us.  We held our position downwind, and Ben opened up a decent lead.  He led all the way around the course, and won handily.  We managed to pass the rest of the boats, over the next three legs and finished in second.  After the first day, we led the regatta with 8 points, Will was in second with 11, and Ben was in third with 13 points.  Andy and George were tied for fourth with 14 points.  We knew that we were in a good position, but it was anyone's regatta at this point.

The second day brought classic San Diego conditions with an 8-12 knot westerly.  This means that it is a go right day in San Diego.  The first race was a six legger.  We were able to get a good start, near the committee boat, and got right as soon as we could.  We led the entire race and took the gun.  We did manage to pick up a huge piece of kelp on the second run, almost costing us our lead.  Andy took second, and Will took third. This meant that we had a five point lead over Will going into the last race.

The last race was a five legger.  All we had to do was stay in
the top five, and we would win the regatta.  We had a good start, and got right as soon as possible.  Ben Mitchell beat us to the right, and led around the top mark.  We were second and Will was third, right on our heels.  Will managed to pass us on the run.  The next beat got interesting.  Will was not about to concede the regatta just yet, and he began to do everything he could to push us back into the fleet.  His goal was to put five boats between him and us.  By the top mark we had lost our lead on the boats behind us.  Ben was launched and went on to win the race.  We held off the charging George Szabo, and Jim Buckingham at the leeward mark, but before long, we were getting sat on by Will the entire leg.  He finished second, George got third, Jim got fourth, and we wound up finishing in fifth.  We won the regatta, but not without having to work for it.  Below are the final results of the regatta.    Mike and I will be working hard to prepare for the North Americans.  We have a lot to improve on.