The first race of the day threw us for a loop. For a moment there, an upset could have occurred. But after the ups and downs both in the water and once again on shore, our class champion has been decided and as originally expected, it is Bruce Golison, Steve and Stevie Washburn on Mini-me.

The top four positions did not change and little movement occurred for most. However, although the final positions do not immediately reflect it, today was a different kind of race.

For one, it was a light air day, around the 5-6 range. Instead of the 220 wind during the first day, the area was covered with a marine layer until about 1pm and this kept the winds to the left to as far as 160. The wind shifts were  20 degrees apart. Boats were spread on both sides of the course and it was risky. With these kinds of shifts, someone could be out of position quickly. But in the end, the boats in areas of more pressure gained.

In the first race, the RC set a line square to 180 degrees. This was not a pin-favored line.  Everyone was spread evenly on the line, although the leaders were still clustered at the pin. However, at the first attempt to start, most the boats, excluding pnly about 5 or so who were in the third row were over early. The PRO started calling OCS this way: "All boats over early, except....". But they couldn't keep  track of who went back so a general recall was called. The next race was an I flag start. There was general confusion at this start and the top boats seemed to not have been positioned as well so I saw DA, Mini-Me, and Altitude Sickness all duck to clear their air.

This was the big surprise since early on in the race, DA was mid fleet, Mini-Me and Altitude Sickness were left behind as well. The only one that seemed to react well to the recall was Head First (Van Waay/Wilson) and they ended up leading the entire race and finished 1st. But none of the other top boats were close. Golison was in 5th, Winnard trailing at 10th and Altitude in 8th. The ones that performed well were Carson Reynolds (2nd), Aggressive Tendencies (3rd), and  Energy (4th).

At this point, suddenly Head First was in position to win the championship. Everything was hinging on the final race.  Mini-Me just had to make 4th place to keep the top position.

By the time the second race started, the wind started shifting a little bit right to 195 and the marine layer lifted. But the wind did not build. The shifty conditions still remained.

At the start, once again multiple boats were OCS. DA, Mini-Me, Head First were all called early and thus had poor starts. But Golison was in especially big trouble because this put the championship at risk. Altitude Sickness missed being called early by quickly tacking to port right before the start. Unfortunately, this caused a collision with Stink Bug. However, no protests were called. Infelise then went on with the race to build a commanding lead and finishing 1st.

In the meantime, Head First was fuming because they thought they shouldn't have been called early, since they thought that Altitude Sickness should have been early too. But that apparently was not the case. This became a bone of contention with Head First and they protested the RC. Later back on-shore, we reviewed photos which we later clearly identified that they were in a position to be OCS and there was nothing to prove an incorrect call otherwise. A sail with a Gold S20 appeared in the super blown up photo. It was not Winnard since, apparently, they had already turned around the pin ahead of Golison by the time I took the photo. This was verified by several people. This was a significant issue because if a redress was granted in this case, Head First would have won the regatta. However, the facts seemed against them and they retracted their protest. Thus the winner of race was finally decided, and it was "decided on the water" to quote Steve Washburn.

The Golison/Washburn team did a fantastic job at this regatta. They have been in 2nd or 3rd place in every Nationals since 2000. They had consistent boat speed, which Altitude Sickness could best at times bit not as consistently. But the difference between their speeds was small. They had the most consistent race results even with only one bullet. There was a significant and noticeable tactical difference. Again I relate this to local knowledge. They seemed to be better at deciding where to go on the course, and reflects their familiarity with this territory. Best of all, they had better starts than most, except perhaps for Head First. So in the end, the local boys win.

After ragging on Chris Winnard and Andrew Kerr,  their worst score of 7 in the 1st race seemed mild now in retrospect compared to the results of the top four in the final day. With a strong 2nd place finish in Race 2, even after an OCS call and ducking or squeezing through the fleet on port tack at the start, they had good speed and made good tactical decisions on positioning in the course. From my vantage point, seemed to have picked up a right shift just as they had headed right. They then tacked to take advantage of this. By the time they consolidated with most of the fleet in the center, the wind shifted back and they were saved. In the meantime, Golison was far on the left side and was in danger of losing a lot. But the wind oscillated back and Golison did not lose out. They also had more pressure which helped. It is sometimes amazing how two boats on opposite sides of the course, very far apart could handle the tension of the separation and then come out still close after the 20 degree shifts. It was a risk but it must have paid since Golison ended up catching a couple of boats at the end to finish in 3rd and thus win the regatta.

DA';s problem in the last two races were still related to starting however, and their 10th place finish in race 1 reflects this. At that point, their chances of moving to the top were lost. Still a strong 2nd place finish in the regatta is a great result of the quadruple national champion.

Although Head First did not have the speed, compared to the others in the top four, they seemed to get the best starts. Always in the clear, they've avoided having to worry about escape manuevers at the start and this guaranteed their position near the top. Today they got really really close to a championship.

Altitude Sickness was very close to a win as well and clearly the penalty score in race 3 and the reduced performance in the second day cost them. Still, Altitude Sickness achieved three first place finishes (ignoring the penalty) which is quite an accomplishment. From here on, Altitude Sickness will no longer be considered as a second tier boat. They are definitely going to be top contenders to the nationals from here on.

There were some new names in the top 10 this year. Aaron Lee on Boat 695, from Berkeley YC took a solid 7th. Team Chubasco finished 8th. 

The others in the top ten are not new names. Dave Oborn and the rest of the Kiwi team was doing an amazing job taking the lead in the second tier. Charles Witcher, Charlie Hess and Sherron Hart are certainly the usual suspects in the top group at trophy time. Steve Schock teamed this year with Adam Kline to get a 10th place. They had their moments and some good starts but did not have to boat speed to sustain their position.

Britt Williams on Fayest definitely made significant inroads this year. His constant return to the nationals is a testament to the advantages of trailering his boat in a 24 hour trip. He truly has been learning a lot from his efforts and will consequently be able to pass this knowledge on to the rest of the Oklahoma fleet.

It was a great achievement for the Eugene Junior team in Wings and a Prayer team of Nick Genovese, Blake Bale and Chris Morrow. It was certainly interesting to watch this small boy on foredeck take a spin pole down, which was  a lot longer than he was. This will be a special experience for them and the next time they come back, they will certainly get better and stronger. And they will soon have more wait to put on the rail.

So once again, we await another year of preparation to see this type of event . Next year it will be in Eugene, OR.

A special thanks should be noted to Andrew Kerr, who, after a long day of difficult racing, still had the energy to get the racers together for a post-race class. That was dedication and was a selfless contribution.

Thanks to the host, ABYC for supporting the Santana 20 fleet, especially to the excellent job by Mark Townsend as PRO. Thanks to Bruce Golison and Phillip Infelise, who both previous presidents of the class, have put a great effort to bring us to this wonderful venue.

Cheers and Congratulations to all the winners.

In a way, a large part of this race is being decided on the boats' ability to handle the conflicts at the start line. The regularly pin favored line (which PRO Mark Townsend intended as an offset to the "right advantaged" course in Long Beach) are bringing the same group of boats to the pin end. The rest of the fleet choose not to play in that corner due to the congestion and stiff competition. This constant conflict at the start line is probably the ire of Disaster Area since this is always where they get cooked. However, this proves to be no big chore for Golison/Washburn as they constantly manage to occupy the pin end, or have such good positioning at the start for themselves by making a fine hole to go into. Combined with the almost always flawless starts (except for Race 3 yesterday), Mini-Me has one of the best boat speeds in the regatta. Today they appeared to be the fastest. Bruce claims they don't have to weight to handle the strong stuff but the results show differently. In race 5, they went from 1st to a net loss of maybe 30 boatlengths as they got their spinnaker under the boat.  Disaster Area caught up with them and was leading them about 15 boatlengths past the leeward mark. By the next lap, they were back in contention again finishing a strong 3rd.

Another thing that is noticeable is that tactically speaking, Mini-Me is making different decisions on the race course. When most of the top boats go right, he'll be the only one on the left, or vice-versa. Observing his maneuvers to take advantage of wind-shears next to the island seems to suggest an advantage in local knowledge. So he has the home court advantage. Unless he makes a major mistake tomorrow, he definitely is the favored winner in the regatta.

Disaster Area, wanted to prove me wrong for my comments  yesterday so they came back with a vengeance today.  They were still having some problems at the starts, at least compared to Golison,  but this is also their conditions -- stronger breeze. The winds were not steadily strong. Bursts of 15 knots but mostly hovering near 12 knots. DA seemed confident today and that showed on the course with a score of 4-2-1.  The good news is that they are now in second place and only three points behind Mini-Me. But really only 1 point, if you give them throwouts, behind Golison so this story isn't over yet! Disaster Area is an aggressively sailed boat. They are not afraid to take the risks to gain every inch of water. Perhaps that reflects in some of the issues at the starts. Minus the start problems, there is no doubt that this boat performs. They make their own moves and are definitely not followers. Remember the move they made near the last leg in race 2 yesterday, grabbing a 1st after being in 4th, after a savvy move to take advantage of a lift near the island. And clearly this is not a team that sulks after a bad performance. Even as they recover from starts, they always manage to climb towards the top. So if there is a possible upset, it can definitely come from this team.

Mini-Me Rocketing to a 1st place Finish

Head First (Van Waay/Wilson) was more of a follower today. They did reap the benefit of Golison's spinnaker disaster by winning that race, but generally speaking, and they acknowledge this, they are not as dialed in on the boat speed and this can be seen as a gap between Mini-Me and DA vs. the next tier, which Head First leads. A good solid performance and consistency keeps them at the top. A chat with one of team suggests that they are still learning how to tweak their new Pattison Sails. Currently they are in 3rd place, a point behind Winnard/Kerr, but actually 2 points after a throwout. So at this moment, they are a very strong third. 

Now you probably wondered what happened to Altitude Sickness. Definitely, it was a bad day for this team. At first, a good 2nd place in Race 5 seemed like they were ready to continue their winning streak. But as the wind picked up, they fell back. I talked to Phillip after the race and he said they couldn't get the speed up, especially since these are normally their favored conditions. They haven't figured it out yet. After a 5-6 in the last two races, they are now no longer in contention for the top prize, and probably can't finish in the top three after throwouts. But this also assumes that everything is constant, which it isn't. After every race day, each of the top boats are constantly reassessing their rig tune, and perhaps their particular setup is not suited for today's winds. We may never know and this is the ongoing challenge in sailboat racing. And the problems are not limited to boat speed as I observed less than stellar starts. But as with DA, these are not your typical S20 starts.

On the improvement scale, I would definitely give my vote to Steve Schock on Quitcherbitchin. Although they didn't have the boatspeed of the leaders, their excellent starts in the middle of the line have proved to be a bounty since they get clear air and fast speed out of the gate. They have successfully taken advantage of a dip in the line near the committee boat. No dips exist at the pin end where the top boats are fighting for position, but a lot of advantage to be gotten at the middle. Except they overdid it once and got an OCS. Still they eked out of an early possible OCS. I know that Adam Kline is particularly good at calling distance to the line and this was a good call. So after a slow first day, they have managed to climb into the top ten.

On the consistency scale for the this tier, Energy with David Oborn and his other Kiwi buddies seem to stay near the top group, finishing with a 3rd in race 4. Aggressive Tendencies (Witcher/Hart/Hess) are so steady that they are likely to trophy. Chubasco (Keesling/Dunton) was also moving up in point totals, although their overall position has not changed.

I was on the RC boat today and had a different vantage point on the race. Again on the subject of the start line pin-bias (which is a constant element in the race), which the PRO targets to 10 degrees, is probably making this a different race. It is definitely a test of skill, and I understand PRO Mark Townsend's logic for doing this, however there is no doubt that it is affecting the course of the race. On each and every race, I've watched the same set of 6-8 boats staking their spot of water on thepin end of the line. And all the boats stop at 30 seconds. No one is moving. This is repeated at every race. I hear that Tornados start like this. Perhaps something like this would have been great for Charlie Ogletree. But this is not typical of S20 sailing in my experience since Andrew Kerr always teaches that it takes a while to get a Tuna up to speed.  Since only Golison is a Long Beach local, perhaps no one else is as knowledgeable about the "right side advantage" of the course so they look only at the start line angle. But then again, Golison is in fact a local and he is, as I've mentioned earlier, usually the boat closest to the pin, so why does a local think there is a definite advantage to the pin at all times? Is it because it is too advantaged in their minds or is it because Golison think it's easy to get the advantage at the pin? That remains the question of the day.

Beyond that question, I had a truly enjoyable time watching Mark Townsend work. A world class race  officer, you can see how he makes everything work, the internalized computations he makes to himself, which he sometimes verbalizes. 

Clumping of Leaders at the Pin. Looks familiar?

But his truly relaxed manner made everything seem so easy. I learned a lot from him.

Of course, I don't get to talk much about the other racers in this regatta who are equally important. Britt Williams (Fayest) said to me that he doesn't come here thinking he can win, but the chance to learn makes him keep coming back. In fact, Britt has moved up as I've watched him over the years since 2000. Mark Forrest on Radost comes from Eugene not to "beat Winnard" but to take home the knowledge to be better at his home court. And this is the fun in a Nationals competition. As I saw Dale Zobel from Arizona compete in his first S20 Nationals, if he keeps coming back for more pain, he'll be climbing up the ladder like Britt has been doing.

Scott McKenney was absent today for some reason, and at this moment, we don't know why. I hope he is well. His boat was left in the water untouched the entire day, probably since last night.

Mark Forrest's Duct Taped Deck

To summarize the conditions of the day, the first race started off with 10-12. The wind actually went left and stayed left for much of the day at 210. At about 2:30, right in the middle of the last race, the wind suddenly went right. As is the usual pattern in Long Beach, this was supposed to bring about the strong winds which follows the right shift. 

But as the mark was reset to 225, the winds didn't hold. At times, the whitecaps would appear and the strong wind gust lines made us think it was going to build, but then it kept fizzling out. I didn't see it actually get stronger until right after the race at 4:00.

Another factor in the course are the "Islands". Depending on the wind angle, apparently these do change the direction of the wind even from some distance away. Of course everyone in LB must know this, but when seen from observation, it is interesting how it affects the wind angles, considering the, so-far, narrow wind oscillations of the general area wind. As a Marina Del Rey sailor, the only island I ever consider, as far as winds go, is Hawaii! (which to you Transpac Followers, actually has wind going the other way).

To add to the interest in this story, in Race 3, a huge barge being pushed by a tug actually went in the center of the race course. It was a bit of suspense to watch some of the boats get caught on the left side of the course with a barge in between coming at them. I wasn't sure the barge would have responded to a "starboard" hail and it was a tense moment. The happy ending is that the tug took a course below the boats heading upwind and saved the day.

It was a roller coaster ride. Just when you thought you knew who was going to win a race,  the results between the top group of Altitude Sickness, Mini-Me, Disaster Area and Head First would flip. Some of this occurred on the race course and some in the "Room".

But the clear speed star of the day was Altitude Sickness (Payson and Phillip Infelise). With extremely good starts all around, Payson's continuing practice in the youth  international match racing circuit is revealing some amazing moves and sense of timing. Even after the start, Altitude Sickness blasted out in front in two of the races with an edge in boatspeed and even more superior height upwind which we could clearly observe as the 4 top boats were lined up. Several times in the 2nd race, Disaster Area (Chris Winnard/Andrew Kerr) and Altitude duked it out with some aggressive lee bows and at least for that race, it almost seemed personal. With a 1-3-1 finish, I left the course thinking about a possible new champion, and later found out that they took a 40% penalty in the 3rd race from a protest with Head First.

Mini-Me (Bruce Golison/Steve Washburn) was consistenly fast as well and stayed consistently at or near the second position, except for the disastrous start in the 3rd race. No major mistakes in the first two races but after being in the lead in the 2nd race, they went to the right while Altitude and Winnard went left on the final sausage and they fell to third. However, a last minute jibe near the finish caused Altitude Sickness to overeact and they slowed down and Mini-Me passed to take second. Mini-Me's disaster occurred in the 3rd race. Everyone was going for a pin end start and they were the boat closest to the pin and they didn't make it. A quick tack to port at the start caused a protest and they had to recover after doing a penalty turn. However, clearly this is no major disaster for Bruce Golison and Steve Washburn as I watched them lined up perfectly with a boat 3 boatlengths on either side, and the next time I looked, a few minutes later, he became the most weather boat and was 20 boatlengths ahead. Clearly, these top sailors have so much boatspeed that tactical considerations are overcome. It was an amazing sight. After watching Mini-Me now for several years, I'm noticing Golison's fondess for the port tack layline approach. It is always close and makes for exciting pictures. It is something that hardly ever works for most but this team manages to pull it off. I guess being in the top 3 ensures you don't get into traffice problems!

The top boat with the most frustrating day must have been Disaster Area, our 2002 champion. First they start off with a horrible start in race 1. All the top boats went for the pin. It was crowded. Amidst a pack of about a half a dozen boats,  you can see that the boat most to weather was DA and they weren't moving, relative to the group. While I saw heeling boats to leeward of them, DA was upright and quickly falling behind. Forced to make a clearing tack, the rest of the race was spent playing catchup. After being behind perhaps 3/4 of the fleet, they clawed their way to 13th on the 1st leg, 10th on the next leg, and 7th by the time they finished. This included missing the weather mark and having to jibe around and duck and even some ill timed tacks that cost them positions on subsequent legs. It was just problem after problem and you could see the loss of concentration in the moves. But later, I saw Chris and Andrew keeping their cool, communicating like they always do and picking at boats one at a time and getting back into the groove, especially at the last leg of the 1st race.

DA struggled again in race 2. After the aggressive match racing between Disaster Area and Altitude Sickness, it was actually Golison who took the advantage. But DA still had tricks up it's sleeves. They clawed their way from 4th to 1st by heading far right near the end of the 2nd upwind leg and rounded first to claim the lead for the balance of the course. This was one of the most exciting lead changes in races so far. In race 3, again they had more bad luck by being early and having to go back to the line. DA was persistent and once again hanging onto third. DA's boatspeed was probably second to Altitude Sickness but was losing out right from the start.

Laying back in the wings was Head First (Willem Van Waay/Travis Wilson). The 2000 champion is staying close but is not matching the boat speed of the other three boats. However, one thing to be said about this team is consistency. No starting problems and seemed to stay out of trouble. They tended to not bunch up with the top 3 and was more willing to go to a different side of the course. Consistency can be a strong factor here and without the ups and downs of the other leaders, have managed to sneak into an overall second place after the first day. They aggressively protested both Mini-Me and Altitude Sickness in the 3rd race which moved up their overall position.

In the second tier of boats, some surprising results. Newport boats Problem Child and Energy, have been finishing in the top set. In the first race, their advantage was that they did not mix it up with the big pack in the first race and they went off to port tack right at the start and got off with clean air. But this is not the only factor as I saw Energy keep up with DA and the other top boats. Their boat speed is certainly up. Energy hit the mark in the second race however, and that cost them the race.

Right behind the first tier and  are Aggressive Tendencies (Witcher/Hart/Hess) and Chubasco (Keesling/Dunton). Britt Williams from Oklahoma is also right up there finishing 6th in Race 3. Except for Aggressive Tendencies, the rest of these boats are not the usual suspects in the top ten group so they are doing very well in this regatta. Aggressive Tendencies was  always close to the leaders and consistency in their performance will surely be reflected in their final positions.

Steve Schock and Adam Kline on Quitcherbitchin were not doing as consistently in the first day. With a good 6th place finish in race 3, they managed to take advantage of the ruckus between the top boats at the pin end and scooted ahead. However, they have not fared as well in the first two races.

Some other boats were also not performing at their typical level. Stink Bug (Strasser) was so far not getting up to speed. Their light crew seemed unable to keep the boat flat. After finishing 1st in the practice races, this must have been a disappointment.

Radost (Class President  Mark Forrest) certainly had his worst regatta day already. He was T-boned at the start of the 3rd race and I saw his boat loaded up on the trailer with extensive damage on the port side near the bow. I did not get the details of the collision but it appeared to be a hit from a port boat. At the start of race 3, most of the boats were early at or near the pin end and many boats did some dangerous tacks to port. In all the confusion, I did not see this event.

Overall, the windshifts tended to be minimal during the entire day. The race course was set with a 220 degree mark for all the races, with twice around courses. Wind started off at the light end early on (about 8 knots), picked up to 12 knots in the second race and dropped down to 10 knots later. Some occasional 14 knot winds would appear near the weather mark close to angel's gate and some windshifts seem to come at the course closest to the island and near the weather mark. Generally, everyone was doing the Long beach "Go right" strategy but Altitude Sickness tended to hang left a little more until they got close to the island and seemed to gain an advantage. At several points during the race, particularly in race 2, the top boats split between left and right corners and suprisingly when they eventually crossed, even after such a wide separation, they were still just a few boatlengths apart so that speaks to the minimal oscillations. There was a decided lack of heavy chop and it was a comfortable ride, except that the rollers from the pacific entered near the ocean entrance and landed directly into the area near the weather mark. 

The twenty-eight boat fleet  came from Washington State, Eugene, Colorado, Oklahoma, all of California. A junior team came from Eugene.

Top 6 Positions after 3 Races (Penalties Applied)

1. Mini-Me

2. Head First

3. Disaster Area

4. Altitude Sickness

5. Aggresive Tendencies

6. Chubasco

Today was the calm before the storm. At last count, 28 boats were prepared to test their skills against the best starting tomorrow.

After all the measurement details were squared away in the morning, three practice races were held this afternoon in what participants described as a challenging day of light air.

"Where's the strong winds that Long Beach is known for?", asked Scott McKenney of Bloodhound. Approximately 20 of the boats were in the water joining the on-going practice races.

Later in the evening, Andrew Kerr did his daily planned race discussion were ideas were exchanged between the sailors on the challenges of the day.

The class association meeting followed with the election of the new officers for 2005. 

Steve Schock, Adam Kline and Richard Hoffmeister returning from the practice race

Class Ambassador Andrew Kerr giving a little race class

The slate of officers are:

President - Mark Forrest

Vice President - Tucker Strasser

Treasurer - Fred Luvisi

Secretary - Derek Hardy

Western Region Director - Britt Williams

Eastern Region Director - Edith Collins

Measurer - John Papadapoulous

Also some fleets presented some proposals for National venues in 2006. A non-binding informal vote was taken of the proposals and Coronado Yacht Club got almost unanimous acclaim for a race in the south bay.

I'll be providing daily reports on this diary every night, with photos so stay tuned for the action. For those of you who are not close to the venue, this will be more exciting than the Olympics (sorry Charlie Ogletree...) since I will not spare you the excruciating detail. I shouldn't make promises that I can't keep, but this will be a challenge for me to try. Tomorrow, I will have free rein over a dedicated photo boat so I'm hoping to get the most detail yet in any regatta.

A cursory examination of the boat revealed nothing extraordinary, and I noticed that they still had their traditional smooth but clearly unpolished bottom. I'm sure it's some "boundary layer thing" but interesting contrast to all the other shiny bottoms.