(San Diego, CA)- This year's prestigious Sir Thomas Lipton Cup Regatta
promised to be one of the most challenging editions ever in the 98 year
history of the event. There were two signifiant milestones for the
sailors that elevated the game for all competitors from around America.
First and foremost, the San Diego YC's remarkable cadre of enthusiastic,
supportive sailors decided to invest in twelve identical suits of J/105
sails from their local North Sails Loft (for those history buffs, this
is the place where Lowell North, founder of North Sails, started his
little business). Secondly, the SDYC Lipton Cup Committee also decided
to open up the event from a SoCal "club championship" to one with
broader national appeal, inviting three clubs to participate for this
year's event- New York YC, St Francis YC and Southern YC. When the dust
cleared from the field of battle on San Diego Bay, the "newcomers" gave
it their all and nearly pulled off an upset, but it was California YC's
"Peaches" Little and team that were crowned the 2012 Lipton Cup
Champions.
The
weather forecasts for the regatta initially looked a bit like the
"fresh-to-frightening" variety, with a massive Low spinning out of the
Gulf of Alaska and whipping up its fury as it spun towards the
California coastline. One thing's for sure, the surfers were certainly
excited about it-- with promise of 10-15 ft surf on their favorite surf
breaks offshore. For the sailors, the prospect of big breeze, leaden
grey skies and rain was nothing like what the San Diego Chamber of
Commerce promised for "typical" San Diego weather conditions. 
While
Friday dawned a bit grey, it soon cleared up to a partly cloudy, sunny
day with good breeze from the "normal" sea breeze direction of 275-285
at 8-15 kts inside the San Diego Harbor-- amazing, the sailors were
blessed beyond belief! As a result, the 12 boat fleet of J/105s enjoyed
most excellent racing in the natural sailing amphitheater of San Diego
Bay surrounded by three islands- Coronado Island, Shelter Island and
Harbor Island. There was only one big hiccup to the proceedings on the
first day, a significant "bumper car" situation at the first weather
mark in the second race ended up having two boats becoming instantly OOC
(out of commission). So, after racing two good races, the fleet was
sent home to repair boat wounds and sore muscles. Tied for the lead
after the first day were San Diego YC and St Francis YC with several
clubs just behind them, including Coronado YC, Newport Harbor YC and
Southwestern YC.
For
the second day of racing, the Lipton Cup PRO wisely decided to start
earlier by one hour due to the amazing forecast for Saturday's racing-
10-15 kts gusting to 20 kts from 275-285 (remember, this is the usual
direction). And so it was. After five fantastic, incredibly close
races, the sailors all returned home a bit worse for wear and tear.
With 10-15 minute boat-swapping turn-arounds between each race that
entailed sailing over to the "change-dock", unloading all your personal
gear, spinnaker, tools, food/drink, then moving over to the new boat,
sailing back to the start, re-attaching the spinnaker, storing all the
gear, checking the wind, checking the jib-sheet leads and halyard
tension, checking the mainsail setup and ensuring your spinnaker wasn't
twisted by hoisting it temporarily, it was understandable that most
crews were pretty exhausted by early Saturday evening. At the end of
this marathon of four "sausages" (4 windward-leewards) and the one last
3-legger, the crews were quite ready to either sleep or find a massage
therapist fast with a good dosage of pain-killing Advil tossed in for
good measure. With seven races under their belts, the standings took a
dramatic change as the wind blew hard for at least three races of the
five. Standing out from the crowd with 3 bullets in the first three
races was Coronado YC to take over the lead for the regatta. Another
big mover was New York YC with two bullets in the last two races, enough
to pull them within striking distance of the lead along with several
other clubs, including California YC, San Diego YC, St Francis YC, San
Francisco YC and Newport Harbor YC.
The
stage was now set for the third and final day of racing. The weather
forecast could not have been worse. A weak gradient from the ESE in the
early morning hours was supposed to persist until noon, then slowly
fill-in for what appeared to be a "drift-a-thon". Thankfully, the
SDYC's PRO was blessed yet again. Mercifully, the wind died by
mid-morning and the rapid heating of the Tijuana mountains to the
southeast meant the proverbial NW breeze from 275-285 would develop with
a range of 6-12 kts, enough to get in four final races on Sunday! The
biggest determinant of performance in the first 2-3 races was how each
team factored in the strong ebb current before it finally started to
change mid-afternoon into a flood current along the Harbor Island
shoreline. Local knowledge helped to some degree. But, again, good/bad
starts and tactical calls would make enormous differences for each team
as they struggled with the breeze lane along the "USS Carl Vincent" (a
massive 1,100 ft, 20-story high nuclear carrier parked along the left
(south) side of the course and the Harbor Island starboard lifts
dropping into the course from the shoreline along the right (north) side
of the course. In the end, it was Cal YC's Bob "Peaches" Little that
avoided any big pitfalls race-to-race to win by just 3 pts. Second was
local San Diego YC sailing champion Chuck Driscoll finishing with 49
points. After a fabulous day of sailing Saturday, the Coronado YC boys
had rough going the last day, whatever "lucky charm" they had simply
faded away, ending up third for the regatta with 55 pts. After being in
a tie for the lead on the first day, it was yet another tale of "two
days" for Russ Silvestri and crew aboard the St Francis YC team,
finishing with 57 pts, narrowly missing the podium on the last leg of
the last race. Rounding out the top five was the current J/105 North
American Champion, Chris Perkins sailing for San Francisco YC with 66
pts.The Lipton Cup Regatta marked the end of the remarkable four weekends of J/105 sailing in San Diego. All four events were managed very well by San Diego YC's band of 100+ volunteers, excellent RC/PRO and it sponsors (including J/Boats dealer Jeff & Karen Brown's JK3 Yachting as both sponsors and Chairs of Committees for the various events). Kudos to all and a testimonial to what excellent planning and execution can do to make it a memorable series of events for many sailors from across America. If the chatter on the dock and the deck of San Diego YC was any indication of the fun and camaraderie amongst all the sailors, the future sure looks bright for the J/105 Masters and the Lipton Cup in 2013 and beyond! Sailing photo credits- Mark Albertazzi (www.kaimaka.com) For more J/105 Lipton Cup sailing information
