District 20  Regatta Report

Sat Jan 7th, 2006 through Sun Jan 8th, 2006

Regatta Base

2006 Levin Memorial

 

Report by Austin Sperry:

This year I sailed with my old skipper John Kostecki. John had not been in the boat since Barcardi Cup 2003. Larry Suter has been coaching me this winter so I decided to work with him again during this regatta. Friday John and I decided to go for a sail as it had been a while since we sailed together. In the morning the breeze was 25-30 kts from the northwest. We decided to rig the boat, get lunch, then make a decision on sailing for the day. Well, the breeze looked as if it had laid down a bit and we left the dock. As we sailed downwind on starboard gybe the breeze started to build … we dug the pole and broke the mast. I think we both saw the day of practice lasting a bit longer than 35 minutes.

It was a very long tow in after we drifted about a mile towards Cuba as we tried to clean up the quick sail we’d had over Biscayne Bay. We made it back to shore, took the stump of a mast out of the boat and put a new rig in. The weather forecast for Saturday was calling for much lighter breeze. This was a problem as our Z4 main was in ten pieces after our mast fell down. Mark Reynolds of Quantum arranged to have a sail sent overnight for Saturday delivery so it would arrive before we left the dock. Friday was a long day for a half hour of actual sailing.

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday with more wind. We decided to use the Z6 sail for the day. The Z6 is a fantastic sail that Paul Cayard, Phil Trinter, Andy Lovell, Mark Reynolds and I developed for the Olympics last year. It has a bit more luff curve along with a few other changes but all in all is similar to the Z4, with a better range in windy conditions. We left the dock a bit too early as we didn’t realize how windy it was. John sailed high and on a tight reach trying to save our sails and bodies before the race began. Sailing out to the race course we had a game plan. Basically, we wanted to have a good time, stay out trouble, get off the starting line and hit all the shifts.

The first race we sailed very conservatively. We started at the committee boat and had the freedom to sail where we wanted. About half way up the beat it looked really bad on the right side of the race track. We were patient, played the shifts and got around the top mark in the top 20. Downwind we made some nice gains, again staying patient playing the shifts and sailing on the edge of the race course and sailing in clear air. We rounded the right hand gate (looking downwind) and started off on starboard. We both felt that what we saw on the run with pressure and angle was that it would pay to be on the right side going up the next beat. We passed a few more boats on this leg and made it around the top mark in good order and headed for the finish. Again we were patient and stayed in the pressure with a clean lane and finished the race in 6th place.

In a 3 race series with no throw outs you need to stay out of trouble and have a bit of luck. Race 2 started with a dying breeze and again we opted for a safe start at the committee boat. We had a decent start, hit the first two shifts and played the right side of the course. On the right there seemed to be a little more pressure and possibly more favorable current. We rounded the weather mark with a nice lead. We continued on the run playing the edges of the race course and were really working hard to stay in the puffs. We extended our lead by the leeward mark and took the pole down a bit early as our leeward mark roundings need some fine tuning. On the next leg we sailed the shifts and kept our heads out of the boat. It was tough sailing as the conditions required quite a bit of gear changing. The breeze would allow me to get over the side sometimes for a minute but it was a lot of straight legging which is not that much fun. We stayed on the compass up the next beat and extended more. Downwind we had the same philosophy: stay in the puffs, work the boat and work together. We won the race by a hefty margin.

Sunday morning the sun was shining and the breeze was about 7 kts. We decided to use our new Z4 that Reynolds shipped out for us the day before. I was a bit nervous to use a brand new Z4 for a race as I like to put a few hours on the sail before we race with it. We sailed out to the race course as others opted to get towed to the starting line. It felt good sailing as we needed the practice and it allowed us to get our heads into the game on the way. It might sound weird but it was really relaxing just sailing, no coach barking at us, no gas smell on the tow, it was really nice just sailing.

We arrived at the starting line and began thinking things out. All weather predictions had the breeze going right all day long. The breeze started from a direction of 10 degrees and was forecast to march right to 90 degrees throughout the day. We had a 2 point lead going into the last race over Mark Mendleblatt and Mark Strube who were knocking on the door.

With about 2 minutes to go until the start the committee boat really started to get jammed up with boats. We did not want to risk an OCS or a bad start so we sailed down the line and got a nice start about mid-line. Mendleblatt started just to weather of us and we sailed on starboard for a while. Once we got headed we both tacked. Now Mendleblatt was to leeward and ahead and the breeze kept going right, so it was not looking good. We had to take a few transoms and were tacked-on a few more times until we broke free and rounded the weather mark 35th. Mendleblatt rounded about 29th. The leaders all gybed around the weather mark; we didn’t. There was a small group of us that bore away and opted again for clean air.

The five of us who bore away made out huge! We rounded the leeward mark in 12th, sailed up the next beat on the right side of the course where we had good pressure and managed to pass a few boats. We stayed in phase and finished the race in 7th place. Reynolds got more right than we did on the last beat and edged us out at the finish, but we won the regatta by 12 points.

The weekend started out with a broken mast, but by taking things slow and steady John Kostecki and I were able to overcome adversity and win a US Olympic Team Qualifier.


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: Fleet Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total
1 USA 8230   John Kostecki   Austin Sperry   USA 8230   WSFB   6 1 7 14
2 USA 8067   Will Stout   Darrell Hiatt   USA 8067   SDB   10 14 2 26
3 FRA 7879   Philippe Presti   Jean Phillipe Saliou   FRA 7879   FdeSA   12 5 9 26
4 USA 8045   Augie Diaz   Bruce Hatfield   USA 8045   BisB   4 22 1 27
5 USA 8222   Rick Merriman   Rick Peters   USA 8222   SDB   7 12 8 27
6 USA 8157   Mark Mendelblatt   Mark Strube   USA 8157   TaB   5 4 25 34
7 USA 8162   Andy Macdonald   Brian Fatih   USA 8162   NH   3 10 22 35
8 NZL 8187   Hamish Pepper   David Giles   NZL 8187   Isol   14 16 5 35
9 USA 8136   Henry Filter   Will Wagner   USA 8136   AN   22 3 11 36
10 USA 8061   Andy Lovell   Magnus Liljedahl   USA 8061   NOG   8 8 23 39
11 GBR 8025   Andy Beadsworth   David Carr   GBR 8025   SO   13 25 3 41
12 CAN 8143   Brian Cramer   Tyler Bjorn   CAN 8143   LOC   9 2 31 42
13 USA 8195   John Maccausland   Shane Zwingelberg   USA 8195   CR   17 13 15 45
14 USA 8177   Karl Anderson   Scott Norris   USA 8177   BH   24 9 16 49
15 USA 8080   Fotis Boliakis   Phil Trinter   USA 8080   CLIS   25 24 4 53
16 USA 8176   Erik Lidecis   Michael Marzhal   USA 8176   NH   15 26 12 53
17 USA 7995   George Szabo   Eric Monroe   USA 7995   SDB   16 19 19 54
18 CAN 7899   Mike Milner   Matt Johnston   CAN 7899   LOC   2 21 38 61
19 USA 7515   Ross Adams   Stewart Hall   USA 7515   WH   19 17 26 62
20 BER 8044   Martin Siese   Bill McNiven   BER 8044   Isol   35 18 10 63
21 USA 8215   Bill Allen   Brad Lichter   USA 8215   WH   27 5 21 63
22 USA 8043   Jock Kohlhas   Mickey Nielson   USA 8043   BisB   37 7 20 64
23 USA 8156   Andy Horton   Brad Nichol   USA 8156   NB   1 bfd 13 67
24 USA 7640   Arthur Anosov   David Caesar   USA 7640   TaB   11 6 dns 70
25 USA 8235   Larry Whipple   Darin Jensen   USA 8235   PS   31 11 30 72
26 USA 7763   Bear Hovey   Lee Dayton   USA 7763     20 29 24 73
27 USA 8239   Mark Reynolds   Hal Haenel   USA 8239   SDB   18 bfd 6 77
28 USA 7713   Peter McChesney   Paul Anlong   USA 7713   An   32 31 14 77
29 USA 8217   Todd Gay   Scott Anderson   USA 8217   LS   21 35 36 92
30 USA 7986   Hyde Perce   Chris Rogers   USA 7986   WH   30 34 29 93
31 USA 7228   Joe Zambella   Eric Beckwith   USA 7228   BH   29 32 33 94
32 USA 8095   Gunti Weissenberger   Chris Brown   USA 8095   NCB   34 36 27 97
33 USA 8153   Eric Doyle   Brian Sharp   USA 8153   SDB   bfd 27 18 98
34 USA 8231   Sam Rowse   Rob Bowers   USA 8231   Sun   33 30 39 102
35 BAH 8236   Steven Kelly   Bill Holowesko   BAH 8236   N   bfd 23 28 104
36 USA 7370   Rob Emmet   Guy Avellon   USA 7370   AN   23 49 42 104
37 USA 8175   Jim Babel   Jon Vandermolen   USA 8175   GL   28 38 40 106
38 USA 8072   Doug Smith   Mike Moore   USA 8072   SMB   bfd 37 17 107
39 FRA 7714   Jimmy Pahum   Vincent Berneguier   FRA 7714   FdeM   36 40 34 110
40 USA 8037   Peter Wright   Don Wright   USA 8037   BisB   26 bfd 32 111
41 USA 8128   Bill Culberson   David Reich   USA 8128   MoB   bfd 20 41 114
42 USA 8038   John Vanderhoff   Rowan Perkins   USA 8038   NCB   dnc 28 35 116
43 USA 8063   Bert Collins   Angelo Buscemi   USA 8063   An   dns 33 47 133
44 CAN 7988   Brad Anderson   Larry Scott   CAN 7988   LOC   dnc dns 37 143
45 USA 7434   Bill Parks   Clark Anderson   USA 7434   WH   dnc dns 43 149
46 USA 7369   Steve Haarstick   Chris Haarstick   USA 7369   Sen   dnc dns 44 150
47 USA 7934   Karl Von Schwarz   Rich Wharton   USA 7934   AN   dnc dns 45 151
48 USA 7521   Jay Tyson   Ian Ciough   USA 7521   BisB   dnc dns 46 152
49 USA 7193   William Joyce   Matt Freeman   USA 7193   WLM   dnc dns 48 154
50 USA 7964   Charles Kohlerman III   Charles Kohlerman IV   USA 7964   NCB   dnc dns 49 155
51 IRL 8028   Maurice O'Connell   Edmund Pezz   IRL 8028   Isol   dns dns dns 159
51 USA 8163   Tom Vandermolen   Dave Jackson   USA 8163   GL   dnc dns dns 159

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