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Complete Daily Reports

Thursday, March 23

On the final day of racing, Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.) and Hunter Stunzi (Marblehead, Mass.) have won the 2006 U.S. Multihull Championship for US SAILING's Hobie Alter Cup. Competition was close throughout the five-day event and the team fought vigorously for its win. With the top three finishers posting consistently solid results, second place finishers Alex Shafer (Eustis, Fla.) and Nigel Pitt (Harwell, Ga.) had been in contention for the top spot from the beginning of the regatta. Last year's winners Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier finished third overall.
After 18 heats in varying weather conditions, new champions Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi showed conclusively that consistency is the key to getting to the podium. "We were careful not to be tricked into going for the big gains when we found ourselves behind," said Daniel, who has been competing in the Olympic Tornado class for over a decade. "The key was to go for the small gains to avoid the risk of big losses."
The winners clearly enjoyed sailing the Nacra 20, a powerful jib, main and spinnaker platform they felt was similar to the Tornado in many respects. Like the rest of the fleet, they also expressed an appreciation for the rotation format that has been developed to self-seed the competitors from heat to heat. This modified round-robin keeps the top sailors sailing head to head as they rotate through each one of the provided boats.

Wednesday, March 22

   The fourth day of the U.S. Multihull Championship opened with a 20 knot, gusting higher, breeze this morning. After closely monitoring and considering the forecast for diminishing wind strength this afternoon, the Race Committee decided to delay the beach launch for the 6B series sailors by thirty minutes. They were accurate in their assessment and by 10:40 am the “clear the beach” command came with a steady 15 knot breeze. All the sailors headed to the course. Casey, who had previously been leading the event and not yet fallen back to B fleet, was sailing in this race and with considerable determination won the race moving them back to A fleet in the next rotation. They were followed by Korte and Zellmer and all three moved up to A fleet in the next rotation. Pedrick suffered an unfortunate rigging problem with their jib and was barely able to start the race before being forced to retire because the jib would not remain hooked at the head.
   The boats returned to the beach for the next rotation and were quickly turned around with the new sailing teams onboard for the 7A race. As forecasted, the breeze continued to slacken and was now at around 12 knots. Robbie Daniel took the bullet for the race and was followed by Thomas and Shafer with 1, 2, and 3 points assigned respectively. Thomas returned to the beach indicating that they were slowed by a rudder that would not remain locked down and after a lengthy review by the protest committee, they were given redress and awarded 1 point instead of 2. These three are shaping up to be the teams to watch for final contention for the U.S. Multihull Championship.
   Once the boats had returned and some minor repairs were made, the 7B fleet was sent out to the course. The wind had now reduced to approximately 10 to 12 knots and was now slightly less steady across the course. The racing became very challenging for the crews to try and predict where the wind would be. Pedrick, after the poor position after the jib rigging issue, came back to win this race and was followed by Gillispie, Jason, and rest of the 7B fleet.
   The boat exchange again went relatively flawlessly and the 8A fleet headed out to the course raring to go in a 10 knot, and somewhat spotty, breeze. Daniel again recorded a bullet scoring a first place finish and moved into serious contention for the lead leaving Shafer, Casey, and Thomas very focused on every tiny detail of their racing. Tomko recorded a strong second place finish in this race and was followed by Shafer and Thomas.
   Again the boats returned for the exchange to B fleet and it went very quickly with only minor adjustments taking place for the new crews. Another 2 lap course was sailed in a 10 knot breeze and Newsome, Korzeniewski, and our Youth Championship contingency, Michael Siau and Sam Ingham, placed third. There was a lot of pride, elation, and respect in the hearts of all the racers and race management to see the lightweight team of Michael and Sam handle this powerful boat and move with the other top three finishers of this heat into A fleet.
   Things began to get interesting leading into the race (intended to be) 9A. Teams were seen with score sheets scribbling scores and calculating several “what if” scenarios. There are two major developments in their minds. If we get 10 races (20 heats) during the week, each team will be allowed to drop their two highest scores. If we do not reach this mark, only one drop will be awarded. The teams are trying to figure out how and who they need to protect against to try and gain or protect their position. The scoring is very tight and anything could happen. Race 9A got started in about 8 to 10 knots of breeze. A different course, course 1 (A-C-A-Finish) was set by the race committee because the wind was getting light and the day getting short. The lead was contested and exchanged fiercely by several teams until the last upwind leg when Daniel, after being closely guarded by Shafer, broke out of the pack and accelerated up the middle of the course toward A mark. From our vantage point on the second story deck above Key Sailing, we could see that a major wind change of about 90 degrees was moving across the course. We saw two boats set their spinnakers to try and gain an advantage to reach A mark first. The Race Committee also saw the change coming and feverishly laid plans to abandon the race because there was no time or opportunity to reset the course for the racers. They efficiently polled their resources around the course and determined that a major wide spread direction shift had settled in on the course and ordered the abandonment of this race since a fair course could not be set. With the sun getting low on the horizon and the breeze continuing to slacken, the racers were sent to the beach to conclude racing for today. Because the race was never finished, 9A technically did not happen and will not be reflected in the scores. We will start bright and early tomorrow with the same fleet for a second attempt at series 9A and the last day of racing. The scores are very close and tomorrow's winner, whomever that might be, must undoubtedly exhibit an incredible amount of effort and concentration for the win.

Tuesday, March 21

We awoke this morning to very breezy conditions but by the time today's 5A fleet set out on the water at approximately 10:45 the breeze had reduced to 7 knots. The first race got underway for the A fleet sailors and the streaky conditions provided quite a battle for all the racers as several positions were contended on every leg. Thomas was out to an early lead and managed to stretch out a comfortable distance but ran into an area with limited breeze while the fleet caught up. The race saw several positions change but Tomko battled into first place closely followed by Shafer, then Thomas, then Daniel. All top four teams had the lead at one point in the race. A big upset happened when the current points leader, Casey, was trapped on the outside with little wind and fell back to 8th place meaning they fall back to the B fleet for the next series.
     The boats returned to the beach and with very minor repairs / changes to the ten boats, fleet 5B hit the water. Again the breeze proved to be challenging and the race committee went to great lengths to accommodate a nearly ninety degree shift by resetting A mark for the second lap. The teams picked up the course change with little difficulty and, again, positions changed on multiple occasions on each leg as the boats found their way through areas with additional wind pressure. Susan Korzeniewski battled back and forth with Kirk Newkirk but managed to grasp the lead across the finish line for race 5B. They were closely followed by Keenan and Gillespie respectively. Korzeniewski, Newkirk and Keenan were now set to go directly back to the course for the next A fleet race, 6A.
     During the transfer of the boats back to the A fleet, the return to the water was slightly delayed by a punctured daggerboard well on one boat. That was quickly repaired by Beach Captain Kevin Rejda, and the fleet was given the signal to "Clear the Beach!" The breeze had quickly freshened and the race committee was reporting 17 knots and although the breeze was blowing away from our spectator position, it was pretty clear that there were some healthy gusts coming down the course. Before the race could even begin, four boats capsized and recovered while the race committee was setting up the course for the new breeze. Just as the race committee was preparing the sequence, a report came in that Curry had experienced a rudder failure and was headed back to the beach. The sequence continued and the race began as the breeze continued strengthen. Race 6A started and the fleet left the line clean galloping for A mark. While most teams were simply trying to stay upright, some were pushing in the challenging conditions. A mark happened to be placed close to our spectator position here at Key Sailing and a few of the roundings were spectacular. Newkirk demonstrated a spectacular show of power and edge of control as his boat maintained a 30 degree bow down attitude for several seconds with the rudders clear of the water but was eventually recovered! Several other teams had similar experiences but were not as fortunate to remain "pointy side up." The lead teams managed slightly better on their roundings and Shafer broke out into an early lead. Although they were closely contended on a couple of occasions, they held on for the finish followed by Daniel and Tomko. Curry filled for redress due to the equipment failure and was awarded an average of his previous finish positions, 4.2 points, leaving Jason, Newsome and Korzeniewski in the bottom three moving back to B fleet for the next series.
     Because the weather was continuing to worsen, racing was canceled for the remainder of the day leaving us halfway through series 6. Weather permitting, we will continue with race 6B in the morning.

Monday, March 20

With continued great weather, the U.S. Multihull Championship fleet is putting the new Nacra 20s through their paces. With sustained wind of 20 knots for a couple of races, and 15 to 17 knots the rest of the time, downwind spinnaker runs are spectacular displays of seamanship and speed. In the hands of such experienced sailors that make up this invitational fleet, these big boats with maxed-out sail plans are providing some incredibly exciting racing.
     The top of the fleet continues to be very hotly contested, with frequent position changes throughout the race - the team that gets the gun is often decided in the final gybe or tack. Shafer and Pitt, former Nacra 20 Champions, seem to have finally settled down and posted two bullets today to bring them back within striking distance. This is not enough to overcome a mid-fleet finish early, which the teams of Daniel and Stunzi, and Casey and Pierce do not have. Both the Olympic representatives and the current Nacra 20 Champion posted consistent finishes to maintain their holds on the top two positions in the fleet.
     Casey received redress for an equipment failure in heat 3A - their self-tacking jib system failed at the start of the race, leaving them to spend precious seconds after the start trying to rig the system well enough to continue. This left them all way back in a distant eighth position at the first weather mark, but the fought their way back consistently throughout the race to claim a fourth. The protest committee heard the request for redress on the beach at the end of the heat, and based upon the testimony of the team, race committee witnesses and the Beach Captain who maintains the boats, it was decided that Casey would be awarded a second for the race.
     Racing continues Tuesday under sunny skies with temperatures in the 80s and breezes forecast 10 to 15 knots with a light chop. Stay tuned.

Saturday, March 18

Even with the active involvement of nearly all of the competitors in assisting the beach crew with final assembly of the boats, we were unable to complete a practice race today due to an issue that emerged after the first flight had left the beach. It seemed that some of the dolphin strikers had not been completely tensioned, causing the mast post to bend on two or three of the boats. Once the problem was observed on more than one boat, the race committee abandoned the sequence and sent the fleet back to the beach to avoid any more serious failures. The beach crew spent the rest of the afternoon replacing posts and tensioning those that had not been damaged.
On the upside, Pensacola Beach Yacht Club has embraced the challenge of hosting this event and has demonstrated extraordinary hospitality and poise. Teams enjoyed dinner at the club and the bartender put smiles on many faces.