Regatta Reports:
NORTH SOUTH (November 15-16, 2008)
Over the weekend of November 14th and 15th, Cal sailors begged parents for cars, scrounged trailers out of the boat yard and showed why Cal is the #2 engineering school in the country by pulling 6 boats down to the North South regatta in Santa Barbara with only a three boat trailer and a one boat trailer. 24 Cal sailors made the trip, breaking a team record. After a long drive from Berkeley we arrived at Cody Shevitz’s house where 20 kids unloaded their sailing gear and sleeping bags onto the driveway. I, being a Santa Barbara local myself, made a b-line for the hot tub while everyone else got situated, and got in the zone for the second major intersectional regatta of the season.
Saturday morning, we rigged up our boats alongside the 21 other Varsity boats and 19 other JV boats. The hot weather set the stage for a nice, afternoon sea breeze – perfect sailing conditions – and racing got underway just a little bit after the scheduled 10 o’clock start. On the JV course, Genny Gould and Jake Freimer set the bar, leading the other Cal teams around the course with a solid midfleet finish, and never looked back; they improved for the rest of the regatta. Skippers Greg Hodges and Simon Murphy with their crews Hanna Nguyen and Nina Horstmann, went head to head, swapping points and pushing each other for finishes including two 6ths, a 5th and a 4th. On the Varsity course a cross-wind chop kept everyone working hard to keep their boats moving fast, and provided a local advantage that Cody and I took advantage of. Dan Sundberg and Erin Martin worked hard, and improved a lot, finishing their last two races of the day top ten. Sunday brought similar conditions and as our team got more comfortable in the choppy ocean conditions, improvements were very obvious. By the end of the regatta, every team’s overall result was better than their first score of the regatta.
This year the growth in the team has been enormous, and the North South regatta really made that apparent to everyone. JV Teams finished 8, 14, 15, and 20, while our varsity finished 8th overall. In my opinion this regatta revealed very positive glimmers of what is to come for the Berkeley team. Cody Shevitz highlighted the weekend, tying for 4th in the Varsity Laser division, while Jenny and Jake finished an impressive 7th place finish in JV A with 6 out of 10 finishes in the top ten. Lauren Barclay’s awesome boat handling and good advice kept our boat moving fast as well, and we finished 4th in Varsity A. Given the strides that the team made at North South, and the progress we’ve made at practice, I’m very optimistic for the rest of the season.
FROSH SOPH (October 27-28, 2007)
Due to the tragic fires in southern California, Frosh Soph was moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara at the last minute for safety and health concerns. Ready with a solid team of new members hoping to get in some good experience, the Cal team was disappointed to find very difficult wind conditions throughout both Saturday and Sunday. A cut-off low hanging off the central Cal coast brought wildly shifting wind with some light rain. Most racing was light but some legs saw up to 14 knots.
Sunday continued this way with shifty and unpredictable wind from 16 to -3. Only six races were completed per division, with several races abandoned due to drastic changes in conditions and wind direction. I think it was a first for me when they actually had to tow boats farther away from shore, finish the rotation, and then tow them back in. Another fond memory for some was the race a steady 5 knot, choppy leeward leg suddenly turned to glass in about 3 seconds flat. Some good lessons were learned by all, such as how to load the boats on the trailer efficiently, and I don’t think people minded that it happened to fall on Halloween weekend either.
NORTH SOUTH (November 10-11, 2007)
In an attempt to bring back memories of the “old” north south competition, the team decided to camp out at an RV Park in Santa Barbara for the weekend. On the drive down the team stopped at Joss Giddings’ house for dinner and ate great food such as tri-tip, salad, brownies, rice, potatoes, fish, and sparking cider. Joss’ family provided warm hospitality and showed off Joss’ baby pictures, much to the delight of the ladies on the team. The team made good time and got to the campsite in time to set up some tents and sleep under the stars.
In terms of the regatta, Saturday saw shifting breeze from the Southeast, gusting to 5 knots. A fleet got in two decent races, but due to the very light conditions, the rest of the day was spent on the beach and playing ultimate frisbee. Unfortunately, B fleet was not so lucky and ended up sitting on the water, drifting and watching the festivities for hours from a distance. Though worn out from the beach games, the team got to a restaurant just in time to see the agony that was the USC game and share smores with UCLA.
Sunday’s conditions were similar, with under 5 knots of breeze from the South. It was overcast and this time A Division got the pleasure of drifting for most of the day. Though this seemed reminiscent of Frosh Soph, we enjoyed yet more bonding and, thanks to good de-rigging, got home at a much more reasonable time than the last regatta.
ICSA/VANGUARD SINGLEHANDED NATIONALS (November 2-4, 2007)
Our two Cal team representatives, Chris Wenner and Dominique Bertrand, arrived to Nationals in Seattle with 33 other sailors from around the country to sunny, clear skies but crisp temperatures and unsteady winds. Friday was reported to be around 30 degrees with ice on the boats and everyone was postponed on shore until 3:30 when a Southerly finally filled with around 4 knots. Unfortunately, this didn’t stay for very long and, by the time the sailors reached the start line, the RC had to call off the race again.
Saturday was not as cold, much to the please of our sailors (closer to 50 degrees!), and the day started bright and early with a 10 knot Southerly. Races went straight from 10am to 5pm without breaking, allowing teams to get in 10 races total. The wind picked up midday to around 14 knots with more steady puffs but then calmed back down to around 8 for the end of the day.
Exhausted from a long day of sailing, Dominique was a little less than pleased to have to take a school midterm under the supervision of another coach but ploughed through and continued to work hard to represent our Cal team. Sunday was around 50 degrees again and brought a consistent enough Northerly between 8-12 knots, allowing 7 races. Both fleets were off the water by 2:00 and scores put Chris at 5th and Dominique at 13th. We were happy to see the results and welcome them back home.
It was a beautiful day out at Treasure Island Sailing Center, with bright sunny skies and light wind. We were able to enjoy a 20 minute delay on the dock, with time to catch up with one another as we waited for the breeze to fill in with a light westerly. We were finally able to start by 12:50 and got a solid 5 races in before de-rigging for a delicious bbq at 2:45 (Joss forgot it was daylight savings and thought it was 3:45 and wanted to put the boats away before it got too dark!) complete with cheeseburgers, chips, and Bryan McDonald's juggling pins.
There was one protest by Lauren Barclay and Genny Gould regarding Ryan Schultheis being over at the start and not clearing himself, but not much was done to follow up on this claim. Abby Swann ultimately won the Regatta. Thanks so much to all those that came out to participate and help run the regatta-we can't tell you how much your support means to our team.
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