National Championship - Day 2

13 September 2010

The annual membership meeting was moved up to start at 8:15 and Commodore Art Brereton was able to complete the business in record time for a 9:30 harbor gun and a 10:30 warning signal. The winds were North at about 6-7 mph but as the race time approached it was dying. The Pro put up the postponement as the wind shut off completely and we had a short wait for the sea breeze to start up at 11:00.

At the start there was 5-7 mph of wind from 120 degrees. It appeard that many boats expected the breeze to move right and it did but not on the first leg. It was Peter Maas X-20 on the left side of the course that took the lead at the first mark. He was followed by Richard Wight M-10, Greg Matzat SA-1, Robby Wilkins SC-27, and Brian Porter I-49. Positions didn't change much on the first 3 mark roundings except for Brett Hatton SL-4 who moved from 9th to 2nd and Bob Donat LE-3 who went from the 20's at the first mark to 9th at the next leeward mark. Robby Wilkins got into some trouble at the second upwind mark rounding and had to do a penalty circle which dropped him from 7th to 12th.  Finally things got shaken up on the last downwind, a little pressure and a shift launched a new leader as Peter Maas, Dick Wight, and Greg Matzat were caught going left. Brian Porter won the race in 65 minutes followed by Chad Hillyer T-17 (10th at the previous mark), Robby Wilkins SC-27 (12th at the previous mark), Augie Barkow V-37 who had held his position pretty much the whole race, and Brett Hatton SL-4.

Race four had legs of 1.2 miles and lasted 55 minutes in a winds of 7-10 mph. The right shift that came in during the first race had the course heading at 150 degrees. This time the fleet pushed the start and PRO Bob Stevens decided to call a long list of boats that were over the line. Surely some got away with a head start but now he put the fleet on notice that a general recall wasn't going to be his first option. Casey Call WA-99 hit the shift first from the left side and lead at mark 1, followed by Bobby Koar BH-22, Brian Porter I-49, Peter Hurley MA-11, and Tom Monroe MH-77. Many of the boats over the line re-rounded at the leeward end and this got them over to the favored side of the course and they could get back into the top 20-30 boats. Opportunities existed for gains and losses but the top boats just shuffled slightly and slowly over the next 3 legs - however in the middle half of the fleet where there were some bigger movements of 10-20 places. Brian Porter slipped by Bobby Koar while Casey Call slid back, along with Tom Monroe. Porter won followed by Peter Hurley, Koar, Paul Magno LA-88, and Sam Rogers, M-42.

The last race of the day almost got off on time but the PRO did a postponement a couple of minutes from the start to adjust the line. After moving the leeward end back the second attempt spread the boats out on the line. The boats at the leeward end found a good breeze and slant that let them back onto port after a few minutes and lay the weather mark. Bobby Koar BH-22 lead followed by Lon Schoor H-7, Augie Barkow V-37, Jason Sutherland GL-31, John Manderson T-14. No movement in the top three boats for the entire race and it was Koar, Schoor, and Barkow at the finish. Brian Porter moved up the most from 13th to 5th, mostly on the second upwind. Sam Rogers also liked the second upwind and moved from 14th to 9th. Peter Hurley went from 15th at the first mark to 13th and then 9th at the finish. Art Brereton got by Brian Porter on the final beat to finish 4th, Tom Monroe WH-77 was 6th followed by Sam Rogers, Chad Hilyer.

The Harbor gun is set for 9:00 am Sunday morning for the last day. It looks like some rain is possible with winds forecast at 5-10 mph.

Full Results