2023 North American Championship – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Regatta Report
Day One
The thirty teams of sailors ready to compete on the first day of the 2023 Star North American Championship, hosted by Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, woke this morning to bleary overcast skies, temperatures in the low 50s, and a non-sustainable breeze from the east. This was certainly not what they were hoping for after the last few days of sunnier weather and the westerlies of English Bay, typical for early Summer.
The race committee left the dock at the scheduled time, anticipating a postponement at noon. The sailors were also anticipating the AP, as they took their time leaving the dock. AP went up at noon, as the breeze had not shifted and come up to required racing conditions. The Star sailors floated around the committee boat and the numerous anchored cargo ships that are a fixture in English Bay for about two hours before the skies over the bay cleared and enough breeze from the west came into play.
Race one finally was in sequence at about 2:30, the heading to the weather mark set at 280 with a distance of 1.3 miles, course 4 (four legs, finishing downwind), in a light breeze of about 5 knots. One team at the pin end jumped the gun and was over early but immediately cleared for a clean start. With the wind being a bit shifty, the second weather mark was moved to the left at a bearing of 265.
Race one was completed in the target duration, as James Buckingham with crew Phil Toth (USA) winning with a noticeable lead. Following were Brian Ledbetter and Brian Terhaar (USA) in second, with local sailors Allen Cullen and Dave Martin (CAN) finishing third.
As it was getting late in the day, the committee was anxious to immediately get started with race two. The course was set at a bearing of 280, same distance, and the race went into sequence, but was quickly postponed to allow for a course adjustment to 260 as the wind had shifted left. Race two was all about avoiding the flood tide, and catching the left trends, meaning go left and go up the beach, all while calculating lay lines to the mark and avoiding the anchoring container ships, lots to consider.
The teams that conquered the conditions in race two were George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA) finishing first, followed by locals Hunter Lowden and Brett Wilson (CAN) with Scott Barnard and Kilian Weise (USA) finishing third.
Leading the regatta after two races are George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA) with six points. There is a tight spread at the top of the leaderboard as Brian Ledbetter and Brian Terhaar (USA) are one point behind in second place, with Will Stout and Parker Mitchell (USA) in third with eight points.
Eight races are scheduled over four days, May 31-June 3, 2023, two races per day.
Day Two
Day two of the Volvo Penta 2023 Star North American Championship, hosted by Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in English Bay started as a completely different day from yesterday. Sailors and Race Committee did not have to wait through an overcast easterly wind blowing in “the wrong direction”. Instead, today the predominant westerly was filling into English Bay by 11 o’clock with sunny skies and the race area was ready for an on-time start at 1205.
Race three for the series was a course three, with five legs and an upwind finish. Wind speed was at nine gusting to 12 knots. Winds were steady out of 250 for most of the race, on the 1.3 nautical mile course. Two teams jumped the gun and had to restart bringing up the second half of the fleet to the finish.
George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA) gained on their overall lead finishing first. Scott Barnard and Kilian Weise (USA/GER) finished second, followed by Star World Champion, Carl Buchan sailing with his son, Jamie Buchan (USA), finishing third.
Race four for the series and second for the day, was set up in the same area as the first race of the day. The wind had shifted somewhat to the left and the course was set at 260, course 4 with four legs and a downwind finish.
With a few left puffs, and a flood-tide of 1 to 2 knots, it was definitely “get to the beach” tactics and go left. Coming off the line and holding your lane was key. The breeze gradually lightened to 5 knots by the time George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA) crossed the finish line in first for the second time today. Will Stout and Parker Mitchell (USA) finished second, and Brian Ledbetter with crew Brian Terhaar (USA) were third.
Forecast for day three and races five and six look good with continued warming in the region, which is good for the thermal breeze.
Day Three
The third day of the 2023 Star North American Championship, hosted by Royal Vancouver Yacht Club on English Bay, proved to be another day of patience and frustration. The morning was cloud-less blue skies with hope of the westerlies coming in early to be able to complete the two races scheduled for the day. However, the forecast south-southwesterly for the greater English Bay materialized as a northerly, locally known as “Where the wind goes to die.”
Prefaced with a fading easterly, the race committee postponed at 1200 to wait for more stable conditions. A light breeze from 280 to 300 filled in around 1430. By 1500 conditions were mostly steady at a bearing of 300 with 5-7 knots of breeze.
A typical English Bay fixture, the anchored commercial traffic presented an open course geometry for 1.25 mile leg, and the sailors were rolled into an all clear start at 1515 for race 5 of the series. The first leg of the four leg course with a downwind finish saw the fleet evenly split going upwind, left and right. Local knowledge was evident as the sailors heading left were mostly Canadian.
The first 15 boats coming out of the left and right, arrived at the weather mark in 40 minutes, while the second half of fleet was challenged with pressure drops and a brutal 1.5 - 2 knots of current.
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The first downwind leg was a starboard fetch, staying above the anchored cargo ship to port and maintaining rhumb line in significant cross course current was key. At the leeward mark, a course change to a new weather mark at bearing 290 was signaled. The length of the leg was shortened to 1.0 mile.
Up the second weather leg, the top two-thirds of the fleet stayed in phase with the pressure and finished downwind within about 12 minutes of one another. The remaining 10 boats fell into a hole and were stuck at the top mark, struggling to round and head down to the finish. Four survivors broke free to finish before the 45 minute finish window (after first to finish) closed.
Four others lowered their sails and declared DNF. Two other teams (Brain Ledbetter and Brian Terhaar, USA and brothers Timothy and Bill Siemers, USA) strategically persisted until race committee announced, “The course is closed”. They could then take advantage of STCR 34.6.3, which provides points equal to average of places still racing at the close of time limit window. That difference gave the TLE boats 25.5 points vs DNF boats 31 points (entries +1). It pays to know the class rules.
In the end, Allen Cullen and Dave Martin (CAN) won the race, which puts them into 7th place overall (the drop came into play with the completion of five races). Ben Mumford and Jason Vandergaag (CAN) finished second, followed by James Buckingham and Phil Toth (USA).
George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA) maintain their series lead after placing 5th today.
Racing continues through Saturday, June 3.
Day Four
On this final day of the 2023 Star North American Championship, hosted by Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, the 30 teams woke to sunny clear skies with the hope of early westerlies and completing two races in English Bay. However, as the saying goes, “it never does this here”, Mother Nature had other plans.
The race committee expected a flood tide all day with breeze coming in at 10-12 knots from a bearing of 260. The low pressure system offshore thwarted expectations, the easterly breeze deteriorated as the west breeze materialized to the left of 260 and week below 10 knots.
While 6-8 knots of breeze is normally enough to get a race going, a 2-3 knot current flooding into English Bay is challenging. Race committee scouted various course locations and after one hour postponement, orange flag went up at 12:45 for a 12:55 start.
The first start attempt was postponed at 22 seconds to go. The line was already covered with Stars holding station on or over the line. Race committee added a 6 degree favor to the signal boat end of the line. The start was all clear at 13:04.
On the first beat, the fleet headed left to escape current. The boats were so close to shore that a barking dog on Spanish shoal chased the Stars passing by. Some of the teams hit the sand bar with their keel, a true local phenomenon and authentic English Bay experience.
At the first leeward mark rounding, the replace committee signaled a change in course, moving the weather mark to 245 and shortening the leg to 1.1 mile. Heading to the second weather mark, the fleet hit the beach on the left side of the course, tacking and sailing along the shoal. Most boats approached on port tack layline, sailing over the offset mark which was lowered to aid boats that were swept down current after rounding the weather mark.
Indicative of how crazy the course conditions were, Will Stout and Parker Mitchell (USA) missed the finish, sailed aimlessly to starboard in dying breeze, and struggled to get back into a good lane to recover and finish. They eventually finished last, making a good story for their throw out.
Winning today’s only race was Doug Smith and Ed Wright (USA). They were followed by Carl Buchan and his son, Jamie Buchan (USA) in second and George Szabo and Guy Avellon (USA), the series winners, in third.
Results
