2005 North Americans

Report by Dave Caesar

The 2005 Keane Star North American Star Championships were ably hosted by the California Yacht Club during the third week of August.  They were preceded by the King of Spain regatta.  Sunny southern California didn't fail to live up to its reputation and delivered 9 days of perfect sailing weather. The wind was between 320 and 360 every day, usually right around the 345 mark.  It was so consistent that they could have left the course set overnight and come back to use it the next day. However the California Yacht club would not settle for pretty good and responded to 5 degree wind shifts with precise course changes on a regular basis. 

One thing that the California Yacht Club has going for it is volunteers,  and lots of them.  It's possible that there were more volunteers  involved in this event than actual racers.  Many thanks to them.

The thing to remember about Santa Monica Bay is that the wind always goes right -- except when it goes left.  This led to the shedding of many tears through the event, particularly on the last two days when many boats were caught out on the right.  There also seems to be a serious current washing boats down on the starboard tack lay line, causing much havoc at the weather mark.  This current does not appear as significant in the lower 2/3 of the course.  In our minds, this favored the right side, as one would sail less in the current, but that has yet to be proven.

The chop comes up quickly, and makes it tough to keep the boat moving upwind, but can make the downwind legs fun assuming that the breeze stays up.  It was noted on several occasions that the new Follis seem to have the ability to point lower and go faster, especially in the slightly lighter air downwind.  It was also observed that this speed was often achieved with minimal supervision from the skipper and crew.  At this event, we wanted a new Folli.

John MaCausland was sailing Paul Cayard's boat at this event (USA 8159), presumably to check in on the competition.  He is rumoured to have had little to say on the subject (he presumably felt the Spar Tech mast he was using was fast).

The sailing was great, with boatspeed being the word of the week, and the fastest boats came out on top.  Rick Merriman (8222), Andy MacDonald (8162), Steve Kelly (8236), John Dane (8235) and Brian Cramer (8229) were notably fast downwind, and all of the top finishers were close in speed upwind.  George Szabo (7995) and Eric Lidecis (8176) seemed to be able to get a jump at the start and never look back. 

The top ten boats were all Follis with the exception of Eric Doyle  sailing Lilia 8153.  There were only two boats older than 8150 in the  top ten, Mark Reynolds in 7829 and ourselves in 7640 (Ian Murray was sailing hull no. 8213).  Emmeti spars were predominant with the  exception of Little Mac with Spar Tech.  We were happy with our Quantum Z-4 main and P-2 jib, but we did notice that many people were sailing with a Quantum main and a North jib, and three boats in the top ten used all Norths.

The gear upgrade of choice for this regatta is the fine tune on the jibsheet.  Many boats have gone to one-to-one jibsheets with a tweaker fine tune led to the crew.  It was particularly appropriate for this regatta, as minute, but regular gear shifting was crucial.  Dave Watt left early, so we don't know what the next gear upgrade will be.

Thanks very much to Rick Peters and the many volunteers, and we hope to have an excuse to visit Los Angeles again in the near future