2019 San Diego NOOD - West Coast Champs

San Diego NOOD 2019 - by Brad Ruetenik

Twelve boats registered for the 2019 San Diego NOOD regatta.  The International 14s sailed on San Diego’s South Bay out of the Coronado Yacht Club.  This regatta also served as the I-14 West Coast Championships, thus a Distance Race is also included which has a separate award, but is evenly scored in the regatta.  This event is a no throw out regatta, so finishing races without break-downs does become important as several boats found out.  A three boat trailer came down early in the week from Seattle carrying Kris Bundy and Kris Henderson’s B6s as well as the newest built Henderson B6 which was coming to it’s new home here in San Diego to Ted Conrad and Brian Haines.  Ted and Brian are coming over from the 505 class which they will continue to sail in the bay area, but Brian wanted something with more power for down here in San Diego which is where he is from and has returned to with his family.  Ted was unable to be here for this regatta so Brian enlisted the help of Jake Sorosky as crew.  Jake has sailed the boats for years with several different drivers and crews and he also knows the set up for the single spreader rig that Ted and Brian put in the boat.  Martin Fabiansson got the long distance traveler award coming all the way from Sweden for the San Diego sailing which he knows is one of the best 14 events of the year.  Four more boats came down from the San Francisco fleet including the two boat trailer of John Clark’s B6 and James Clarkson’s Hollom, Kirk Twardowski drove his B6 down as did JV Gilmore and Evan Sjostad who were using Ron Boehm’s B5 Sweet Jane.  Canadian transplants to LA Michael and Elizabeth brought the ‘Woody” down and Paul Galvez brought his B5 down from LA as well.  The San Diego boats joined their newest fleet member Brian with Terry Gleeson’s Hollom , Channing Hamlet’s Red B6, and Brad Ruetenik’s B6.

A few boats were out the the course shaking off the winter on Wed afternoon as well and Thur afternoon.  Racing started Fri with a lightish 6-8 which built to 8-10 with some 12 kt puffs later in day.  We sailed two Windward / Leewards and Terry and JP were going very fast winning the first two races.  Hendo got 2nd in race one  The new green boat “Slim Ball” was going good as well taking 3rd in race one.  Race two had Gleason / Barnes win again with Haines/Sorosky in 2nd, Gilmore/Sjostad in 3rd.  Henderson/Fabiansson, as well as Bundy/Shenstone started to knock off the winter lack of sailing in Seattle and were going fast.  With the breeze out of the north we decided to get the Distance race going while we had wind.  This race is a 14 mi. race with a windward / leeward in south bay, then race up under the Coronado Bay bridge to the San Diego city front, a couple laps on the city front (FM19 down to Channel marker 23, back to FM19) and back to the finish in South Bay.  Decisions needed to be made on the normal slightly more and consistent breeze on the right side of the course but in deeper water of the ship channel and a strong flood tide, vs. staying left out of the current but with more questionable breeze and a few shallow spots out in South bay to watch.  The left seemed to win out and Bundy/Shenstone got out front early going under the bridge and were never really challenged.  There were a lot of place changes in the next few boats both up and down the bay.  Twardowski took a flier to the far right corner at the top of the bay and got a huge right which shot him about 1/3 of a mile ahead of the boats that didn’t follow.  The northerly breeze held and the race finished in fairly normal San Diego conditions of 8-10 across the bay.  The West Coast Distance race went to Bundy, with Twardowski in 2nd, Haines in third.  Terry and JP were a casualty when a pin broke holding the forestay and the rig came down.  Apparently, easily fixed once back on shore, but had to count a DNF.

Day two brought very light breeze early making it a difficult time getting out to the race course.  There was a postponement of about 30 min. while waiting for some stability to settle in.  The F18s and 29ers joined us for the 2nd and 3rd days on the slightly more Northerly course, thankfully were were not sailing with all the J70s, Vipers, and new RS 21 fleets which were on another course further south.  The first race was a painful 6 leg windward leeward in 4-6 kts, of breeze.  Bundy continued his wining ways in the race with Haines in 2nd, JV and Evan came up and got a 3rd in that race.  The 2nd race was a bit more breeze in the 8-10 range with some later build to 12 kts.  Brian and Jake finally broke through and won their first race on the new boat, Ruetenik/Harris were 2nd and Henderson/Fabianson 3rd.  Race 3 of the day was similar westerly breeze but may have backed off a little and saw Gleason/Barnes come back to win, Haines in 2nd and Ruetenik in third.  Haines/Sorosky were winning the event but the following 3-4 boats were all very close on points going into day 3.  The casualty of the day was Bundy / Shenstone who had a lashing fail on the shroud and lost there rig over the side in race two, so they had to eat a DNF and a DNC.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day for Sun.  Again, very little breeze early and very difficult to get out to the race course for most of the fleet.  All the 29er kids have coaches and parents there to pull them out, the F-18s waited at Navy Yacht Club until there was at least a little breeze to get them straight downhill to the race course.  There was another longer postponement and when the wind finally did start to fill we still had to get boats to the course.  Bundy didn’t make it out in the light breeze and packed up his boat.  I asked the RC to wait for our start to allow all the boats to get there, so they started the 29ers ahead of us.  That made for some fun mark roundings while overlapped with the 29rs.  I know of at least one boat that thought they had seen an eclipse with a big blue 14 kite all of a sudden darkened the ski right over top of them, no worries, we were gone a second of two after that.  The breeze did fill in a bit more southwest at 8-10 again with some good shifts especially at the top of the course which could be used for gain (or losses).  By day #3 Haines and Soresky had figured out the settings on the new Green boat and were going fast.  There was some great racing just behind that with Henderson, Ruetenik, Galvez, JV/Evan.  Gleason broke a trap hook on his harness so he was done for the day and weekend with another DNF and DNC.  All the boats were picking up the pace and getting more comfortable by the end of the weekend.  In race one Haines was first, Ruetenik just nipped Henderson off at the finish line with an dual gybe by both boats.   Race two was another 8-10 kt. SW breeze with some shifts thrown in for fun.  Again, Haines snd Soresky were on the lead with Ruetenik and Henderson battling it out for 2nd and 3rd.  We had very close sailing at the top of the course where Hendo was pinned on starboard just below the layline and just bow out, he tried to cross but didn’t quiet make it.  He did his turns and thus lost a few spots.  Ruetenik went on the finish 2nd and Galvez got 3rd.

Congrats to Brian Haines and Jake Sorosky who are the new West Coast Champs on the newest B6 which will live here in San Diego.  Kris Bundy and Leith Shenstone won the West Coast Long Distance Race.  The next I-14 event is the San Diego Super Cup Apr. 27-28, which is one of my favorite events.  Short course racing 1/4-1/3 mi. legs with mid-leg gait required uphill and downhill.  Races are usually 10-15 min. and well do as may as we can until someone ‘cries uncle’  Entry fee $1.00/ft. and two 6-packs of good “local to you” Micro-Brewed beer.  Don’t bring San Diego Beer for you’re from Seattle!  The Seattle boats are staying for it, the San Diego Boats will be there and hoping some of the SF and LA boats will make to trek again as it is a really fun weekend and great boat handling practice and great beer!

See you then,

Hoist!

BR

USA1200, 1161

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