St Francis YC J/22 Team Race Invitational "insider's view"- we received a great report from Nicole Breault,
one of the winning skippers from StFYC from their escapades the past
weekend team-racing against some of California's best sailors from San
Francisco down to San Diego. Nicole said,"Last weekend the St. Francis Yacht Club hosted a team racing regatta for some incredibly talented teams from west coast clubs including San Diego YC, Seattle YC, and Newport Harbor YC. Racing was held in J/22s on the famed waters of the Golden Gate, right in front of the clubhouse, and we experienced the notorious winds and current of the Bay.
Of the two StFYC teams in the event, ours was pieced together only a week before by Scott Sellers. He had lost his other two crackerjack skippers to scheduling conflicts, and replaced them with me and Shawn Bennett. Shawn and I are pretty fast sailors, and have match racing backgrounds, but the amount of team racing we each had done in the past 20 years was minimal. Nevertheless armed with a positive attitude and a bunch of very capable people crewing for us, we headed into battle together.
Spectators on both Saturday and Sunday were treated to exciting action. There were dozens of tactical mark traps and hi-low plays that kept the racing close for the most part. In addition, much to the dismay of Diego (StFYC’s J/22 bosun), we had several spinnaker-clad broaches, including a full-on death roll capsize by Shawn!
After three round-robins, the top four teams moved into semifinal, first-to-two-wins series. Racing was amazingly tight in both brackets with San Diego prevailing over Seattle and our StFYC team (Red) edging out the other StFYC team (Blue). We were having a hard time believing at this point that we had sailed into the finals. There were so many All American caliber sailors on the race course… no doubt any of these teams could have won the event!
Ultimately, we split wins against San Diego in the finals and the regatta win came down to the last race between us and San Diego. I will remember that last race for a long time! We were mixing it up around the top of the course, and one of their guys fouled and had to spin. We looked good down the run, but Brian Hayes had plans for us at the leeward mark! He was in the one and pulled of a mark-trap that left us in four, five, and six, chasing with just the last beat to go! Luckily, we had a strong, flooding current to extend the sailing time of the leg… and the wind was both puffy and shifty. Shawn and crew tacked around the leeward mark and scooted left up the beat, heading into a lefty on the shore. Scott and I, and our crews, headed right and hitched into solid right pressure at the top of the beat. Their guys were stuck in the middle trying to cover. In the end, all boats converged across the finish line within seconds of one another. My boat got the one, Shawn’s boat tacked at the pin and spectacularly shot the line for the two, and Scott’s boat photo-finished with the others! Incredible!
Our hats go off to all the teams we raced last weekend. The tough, friendly competition was fantastic! Looking forward to the next chance to play!" For more J/22 StFYC Team Race sailing information
