Wide Range of Conditions at the US SAILING Area D Eliminations
By John Williams – Area D Multihull
Representative
Have you ever looked at an ailing
municipal facility and thought, “You know, this could be a great sailing center if
there were real sailors in charge.” Well,
that’s exactly what has happened in Clearwater, Florida, where the City has turned over
the management and operation of a neglected sailing center to a not-for-profit
organization founded by a motivated group of catamaran sailors. The result has been remarkable – an aggressive
youth sailing program, instructor training, and the full support of the Clearwater Yacht
Club are just some of the factors that have allowed this venue to realize it’s
potential.
As its inaugural regatta, the
Clearwater Community Sailing Center (CCSC) agreed to host the 2002 US SAILING Area D
Eliminations in conjunction with the Florida Multihull Championship on November 23-24. As a warm-up, the club sponsored a Friday afternoon
distance race in 15 knots of northwesterly breeze. CCSC
is situated on Sand Key adjacent to the Clearwater Pass – taking advantage of the
great location, the committee sent the fleet out
into a choppy Gulf of Mexico, back through the inlet, and around Clearwater Harbor. The steep waves in the narrow inlet made for an
exciting and challenging beat out into the Gulf, while low tide made the harbor an
obstacle course of shallows and tiny islands. It
was an effective and welcome shakedown, allowing the fleet to see the race area and get a
feel for the chilly November air.
The fleet of competitors that had
gathered for the event included skippers from five states on fourteen different types of
boats, ranging from the classic Hobie 16 and 18 to Performance Catamaran’s latest
offering, the Nacra F18. The Formula 18 fleet
was the largest, including Hobie Tigers and the Inter 18 as well as the Nacra F18. Nearly half the fleet was comprised of spinnaker
boats.
Saturday morning dawned cloudy and cold
in the mid-40s – many competitors at the 10 AM skippers’ meeting were bundled to
the eyebrows in every bit of cold-weather gear they owned.
A brisk 12 knot breeze promised a wet and eventful day of racing. The incoming tide presaged a particularly
interesting passage beneath the causeway, through the inlet, and out into the Gulf where
the committee would be waiting. It was a
serious fleet that left the sheltered beach for a noon start Saturday.
The committee, led by Clearwater Yacht
Club’s David Billing, set a short reaching leg at the top of the course, and by the
end of the day it was clear that Course 4 (ABCAC) would be the standard for the regatta. In 12 knots with gusts in the mid-teens, the
18-foot fleet outmatched the larger 20-foot platforms, but as the wind lighted with each
race, horsepower ruled.
“This was a surprisingly well
behaved fleet,” said PRO Billing during the awards ceremony. “I think we only used three extra shotgun
shells this weekend – that’s simply unheard of.” He was correct in his assertion – only one
general recall and two individual recalls were signaled in seven races.
Oscillations of 15-20 degrees were
observed in surprisingly steady, though falling, winds for the whole regatta. The two- to three-foot chop in the Gulf on Saturday
steadily declined as well, with nice, flat water and a light six- to eight-knot breeze for
racing on Sunday. The result was an excellent
range of conditions for catamaran sailing, allowing each platform, from A-Cats to Taipans,
to shine at one point or another. The
wind-corrected Portsmouth ratings system was put to the test for the event, and seemed to
work exceptionally well – in one race, the top five finishers corrected to within 50
seconds. With several national champions in
various classes in attendance, close finishes were not surprising.
“We were all making the first
windward mark together. Things didn’t
really spread out until the downwind legs,” said Kirk Newkirk, former Nacra 6.0
National Champion, who was sailing an Inter 20 for the regatta. “There were a couple of close calls, but I
didn’t see any fouls out there. Everyone
behaved themselves.”
“We had a lot of fun,” added
his 16-year-old son, Harry, who was sailing with his long-time co-skipper, 15-year-old
Tommy Fruitticher on an Inter 18. Harry and
Tommy also sailed together in the US SAILING Youth Multihull Championship in Port Clinton,
Ohio this past summer. “We just tried to
keep clear air, and we worked on our new skipper change moves.” The boys trade positions at mark roundings, with
Fruitticher beating and Newkirk running. It’s
an unusual arrangement that the team seems to make work – they were tied for second
with North Carolinian Wick Smith II, sailing a Hobie 20, going into Sunday’s racing.
Sunday morning, the skies had cleared
and temperatures had climbed back into the typical Florida Fall range, reaching the high
60s in the mid-afternoon. The breeze had
fallen off to six to eight knots. In the
lighter air and flat seas, the Inter 20s came to life, and Central Floridian David Ingram
seemed to have found the groove, posting back-to-back first place finishes to vault
himself into the top of the fleet. The former
Hobie 20 National Champion husband and wife team of Alex and Patsy Shafer on a Hobie Tiger
led the fleet going into the second day by a comfortable margin, but seemed to be
struggling in lighter air.
“There were some holes out there,”
Alex said after the regatta. “I lost
concentration and we tapped the C-mark in the first race, and our circle put us back a
ways. Then we got buried at the start of the
second race and had to sail up the middle. That
didn’t work out too well.”
“The current surprised me,”
said Nigel Pitt, current Inter 20 National Champion of Hartwell, Georgia, who was
skippering a Nacra F18. “At one point, we
thought we’d laid the A-pin and tacked for it. The
current was pushing us down so hard we had to tack five more times just to get there.”
Pitt and his crew, Wick Smith III,
found themselves in the Samaritan role as the committee prepared to start the first race
on Sunday – Newkirk and Fruitticher discovered a broken part where the spinnaker pole
attaches to the bridle. As the warning gun was
fired, Wick parked their boat next to the hapless boys and Nigel leapt aboard to assist in
an improvised repair.
“I told them to get the (starting)
sequence – I’d get the new line tied,”
said Pitt afterward. It worked,
and with only seconds to go, everyone got back on their own boat and hit the line right on
time.
After the seventh race, the committee
sent the fleet back to the beach for Bar-B-Q, free beer and a trophy ceremony, where Team
Shafer was awarded first place in the Formula 18 class, and first place overall to become
the representatives for Area D in the 2003 US SAILING Multihull Championship for the Alter
Cup next April. As the overall results show,
the final scores were very tight, with a mere six points deciding the top five positions. Silver platter trophies were also awarded in the
Inter 20, Hobie 20, A Class, and Open classes, with gold, silver and bronze US SAILING
medals for the top three finishers in the Qualifying fleet.
The US SAILING Multihull Championship
will be hosted by Clearwater Community Sailing Center April 5-11, 2003. Winners of the Area Qualifying events and national
champions from several one-design fleets will compete for the Alter Cup on the Bimare
Javelin 2, recently named Overall Performance Boat of the Year and High Performance Day
Racer Boat of the Year by Sailing World magazine. Alex
and Patsy Shafer, with several seasons of spinnaker fleet racing and multiple titles to
their credit, will represent the Southeastern US well in what is expected to be a highly
competitive Alter Cup fleet.
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