Monday, May 3, 2010

2010 Yachting Cup


photos by Bob Betancourt
Press for the 2010 Yachting Cup by Lynn Fitzpatrick

Chuck Nichols' J/120 CC Rider Wins SDYC's Yachting Cup

May 2, 2010 (San Diego, CA) – Nearly 100 keelboats and over 700 sailors participated in San Diego Yacht Club's Yachting Cup this weekend. The winner of the Yachting Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the most competitive fleet, went to Chuck Nichols and his J/120 team on CC Rider. Said Nichols, "It was a difficult weekend because we rarely have a southerly on sunny days and we had it both days. The only way to win is with outstanding crew work and that’s what we have."

The Melges 24's sailed an eight-race, no discard series over three days and Brian Porter, Vince Brun and Bri and Clifford Porter were the first boat to return to SDYC in the Southwesterly. Their string of bullets and one 3rd place finish gave them enough of a margin not to have to sail the final race of the series.

Low point for the regatta went to Hot Rum in the PHRF 4 Division. The CF33 partnership of Al Castillon, Richard Parlette and Brian Folkman that has been sailing together for over 20 years, posted five bullets and finished the regatta with a perfect score of 5 points. Said Folkman, "We had ideal conditions this weekend. It was nice to sail against other heavy displacement boats and have such close racing."

Racing in the seven one-design fleets and one IRC-rated TP52 fleet was so close that it was commonplace to have overlapped boats cross the finish line throughout the weekend in which sailors experienced the Catalina eddy. Cold air coming down from the north deflects north of LA and hooks back into the San Diego area as a southerly. It wasn't until well into Sunday’s racing that the wind started to shift right as a light haze burned off. Said Jim Dorsey of the J/105 Wings, "It was a chamber of commerce weekend."

The big boats on the West Ocean Course off of Point Loma and the J/120's, Melges 24's, J/105's and the PHRF 3's competitors on the Roads course off of Coronado experienced an 10-12 knot SSW, a large swell, sunshine, temperatures in the low 60’s throughout the weekend. Even rail meat had an important job this weekend – spotting kelp.

Schock 35's, J/80's and the smaller PHRF boats sailed in the flat waters of the South Bay. Said longtime J/80 fleet champion Curt Johnson, who steered his J/80 Avet to a very close regatta victory; "We had excellent conditions on the South Bay. Yesterday (Saturday) it was all left and today (Sunday) it kept going right. I like the waves outside, but my crew loves the flat water. We had really close racing among the top three boats," he emphasized, "within inches."

The West Ocean Course

Chuck Sinks stepped in as helmsman for Jim Madden on SRM and started the regatta with two bullets. SRM has dazzling speed. Says Sinks, "It's a phenomenal boat, and its great to have other TP52's here from out of town." SRM was the winner in the TP52 Class, however Andy Rasdal's team on Valkyrie was happy with their performance, "we were a close second" said one of the crew.

Dennis Pennell's R/P 50, Blue Blazes and Edward McDowell’s Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion traded first place finishes throughout the weekend in the PHRF 1 Division. GI won the final race, but Blue Blazes slipped in a second, which was enough for Blue Blazes to win the regatta by a point. Read more...