1957 North American Championship - Newport Harbor, CA
Regatta Report
Report from Starlights October 1957
Lowell North and Jim Hill burst into prominence eight years ago when they confronted an astonished Star public with three firsts and a second in the 1949 World's Championship at Chicago. A disqualification from the remaining race of that series dashed their hopes for a Gold Star but not their determination. They have been winning major events ever since, culminating with second place in the 1956 World's. Now, with a new North Star, they have added a Silver Star to their laurels in convincing fashion, winning the 1957 North American Championship with three firsts, a second and a third at San Diego against 25 competitors.
North Star III, with a record of 15 firsts in the 18 races in which she had appeared prior to the big series, was admittedly the favorite, and came through with flying colors. No one ever really threatened North's series position. Toward the end of the week the interest centered in the struggle for second which remained extremely keen among the next three contenders. Bill Ficker's Nhycusa, Malin Burnham's Chatterbox and Don Edler's DK'n entered the last race effectively tied, so that whoever was to beat the other two would take runner-up position, or win the series if anything happened to North Star. But nothing did, North merely consolidating with a second. Ficker managed to bring Nhycusa in ahead of the other two, and Burnham finished next despite a defective drain plug which went out through the bottom of the boat in the middle of the race leaving a hole which had to be stuffed with rags.
Ficker, one of the younger aces of the U.S. west coast, has had increasing success in recent years (he won the Blue Star in 1954 in the old Stormy), and his Nhycusa, which stands for Newport Harbor Yacht Club, U.S.A., is a boat to be watched in the future. Burnham, 1945 Gold Star winner, needs no introduction to anyone.
The weather was predominantly light. In Monday's opener the wind started out healthily enough but died completely during the second round, leaving an old sloppy sea with not enough air to fill the sails. As Chick Rollins aptly put it, it was a bit disconcerting to lose steerageway and at the same time need the sprayboards. This of course shook up the order a bit but didn't seem to bother North, who won anyway. The local sailors were as perplexed as the outsiders: these conditions, they said, were most unusual. Next day it was also light, with sprinkles of rain - extraordinary occurrence - and this time the flukes were too much even for North Star III, which rounded the last weather mark eighth. But North played the downwind leg just right, avoiding a calm spot which trapped many others and finished third to Edler and Burnham in that order. That night at the cocktail party a perfect rainbow spanned San Diego, a sight which some Californians claimed never to have seen before - most unusual. But the rainbow presaged no good for the morrow.
All shore activities were ably supervised by a steering committee under the direction of Tim Parkman and Malin Burnham; and Bill Severance's race committee ran the races in flawless fashion. Hosts at the various parties were the Burnhams, the Parkmans, the Charles Rollins, the Edmund Baileys, the Lyons and the San Diego Yacht Club. Thanks also go to many other officials whose names are not available, not least among them the hardworking measurement committee and the boys who braved seasickness to man the marker boats.
Wednesday produced airs so light that the race failed to finish - very unusual, of course. (By this time the record had been played so often that the needle was wearing out.) It was a sore disappointment to President Paul Smart, who led in Melody all the way and missed the 3 ½ hour time limit by perhaps ten minutes.
The weather finally straightened itself out and behaved properly for the rest of the week, providing three reasonably steady breezes of perhaps six to ten knots for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Although North and Hill prefer more wind, they can handle the light stuff too as they showed by racking up two more firsts and a second for a 13 point margin of victory.
Results
1957 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - NEWPORT HARBOR, CA Place No. Name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 3877 North Star III Lowell North James Hill SDB 1 3 1 1 2 122 2 3850 Nhycusa William Ficker Mark Yorston NH 3 6 2 3 7 109 3 2951 Chatterbox Malin Burham Mort Carlisle SDB 5 2 4 2 8 109 4 3746 DK'n Don Edler Saint Cicero NH 4 1 3 5 10 107 5 3871 Shrew William Parks Al Wenzel SLM 7 10 5 6 5 97 6 3298 Scram John R. Cram Lila Cram Coe 6 5 15 7 4 93 7 3913 Lindoya C. W. Lyon Jr Frank Lyon AH 13 11 6 8 3 89 8 3188 Flower Chick Rollins Kim Fletcher SDB 2 4 13 13 15 83 9 3549 Willawaw Paul Ferrier Jr John Ferrier NH 9 12 12 11 6 80 10 2700 Flame Stanley Ogilvy Robert Fritz WLIS 8 13 dsq 4 1 78 11 3886 Ruthless Frank Wosser Richard Owen WSFB 14 8 8 9 16 75 12 3130 October Gene McCarthy Robert Conklin JP 11 7 11 16 11 74 13 3382 Forlic Bill Buchan Jr Wm. Buchan Sr PS 10 19 7 12 9 73 14 3711 Music John O'Brien Tom Blackaller WSFB 17 9 9 14 12 69 15 3743 En Garde II Cal Hadden R. Delgado NOG 19 15 10 10 13 63 16 3475 Stjernaflar Thomas Nylund Cliff McCall PS 15 14 14 17 18 52 17 3331 Jan II Nils Rosenberg Ray Barnes PS 12 18 17 22 21 40 18 3156 Ah-Sin Chris Sawyer Peter Wilhite WSFB wdr 16 19 19 19 33 19 3100 Jade John Sherwood Dave Pitard CB wdr 17 dsa 15 14 32 20 3798 Mink Mario Pani R. Lindberg AC 16 25 20 19 21 26 21 2899 Toddy William Scott G. McRoberts LB 18 20 dns 21 20 25 22 3191 Melody Paul H. Smart Frank Rollins CLIS dsa 23 16 18 24 25 23 3396 Sotavestia M. de la Lama Carlos Braniff AC 22 24 18 25 19 22 24 3797 Chusita V. de la Lama Belaustegulgoit AC 20 23 20 23 23 21 25 3276 Heavenly Body Fred Crail Jr Fred Miller LB 21 22 22 24 25 16
