(San Francisco, CA)- The 2019 edition of the US Sailing Match Race
Championship was hosted by the St Francis Yacht in San Francisco, CA.
After 28 races, the clear winner was Pearson Potts from Newport, RI
taking an unprecedented two-peat for his team. In some respects, it was a
three-peat since he won it the previous year as well.
Day 1- Gorgeous Sailing
Skipper Pearson Potts and crewmember Robert Savoie made up half of the
winning team at the 2018 U.S. Match Racing Championship at Chicago Yacht
Club, under conditions that reinforced the stereotype of the City of
Broad Shoulders’ other, weather-related nickname.
When Potts, Savoie and their 2019 teammates Lucas Adams and Tim Siemers
arrived in Baghdad by the Bay (the late columnist Herb Caen’s nickname
for his beloved San Francisco) to defend the USMRC crown, they
encountered stereotypical conditions for October here. It’s nice.
Sometimes too nice to run a match race.
Patience, however, was a virtue. When racing began at midday Friday in
San Francisco Bay after a two-hour delay, Team Potts posted six
victories from seven matches, returning to the docks of host St. Francis
Yacht Club with the lead after Day 1.
“We’re happy to be where we are, but we’re more concerned with how we
finish rather than how we start,” Potts said back at the clubhouse. “We
have yet to sail the perfect race and until we do, we will keep
marching.”
Patience was also a virtue for the Race Committee, led by StFYC Race
Director Graham Biehl. “October in San Francisco can be a little bit
more challenging in terms of the regular wind conditions,” Biehl said.
“And we were patient and let the breeze fill in…we set our course
quickly and got racing going.”
The regatta thus began in a strong current, an increasing flood, and
marginal hiking conditions. More interactive and aggressive match racing
took place later in the round-robin as the teams gained comfort with
the Bay and the courses. Team Potts, sailing the 52nd USMRC under the
moniker of Guardians of the Monohulls, posted four wins before taking a
loss to skipper Peter Holz and the Chicago YC group. “[Our] mindset was,
‘Hey, we’re not the underdog anymore; we’ve been at the top before and
we can do it again,’” Potts added.
The victory for Holz, who posted a 5-2 mark to end Day 1 in second
place, over Potts amounted to a small measure of revenge. Potts knocked
out Holz last year in the quarterfinals.
By virtue of winning their matchup in Flight 1, San Diego YC’s Chris
Nesbitt stands in third place ahead of St. Francis YC’s Nicole Breault;
the two ended the day with identical 4-3 records. Breault demonstrated
her knowledge of her home course with some nifty maneuvers around marks,
and won her Flight 7 match over Jeffrey Petersen of Balboa YC, who
could not recover from a penalty served during that race.
The bottom half of the table lists Bayview YC’s Ryan Seago, who took
fourth last year in Chicago; Petersen; Allie Blecher of California YC;
and Cabrillo Beach YC’s Cameron Feves. Earlier in the season, Blecher
succeeded Breault as the U.S. Women’s Match Racing Champion; Breault had
held that title three years running before vacating it to compete
elsewhere during the USWMRC.
Day 2- Earthquake Shattering Day!
Shortly before the Saturday morning competitors’ briefing at the Kilroy
Realty U.S. Match Racing Championship, the San Francisco area
experienced a 3.5-magnitude earthquake. That little morning jolt
portended a day of racing at St. Francis Yacht Club that also featured
its share of faults and tremors from the eight competing boats.
After a spirited Second Round Robin that kept the race umpires busy,
four sailors advanced to Sunday’s knockout stage of the 52nd USMRC:
Peter Holz, Jeffrey Petersen, Nicole Breault and defending champion
Pearson Potts.
While many skippers can list two or more USMRC titles on their résumés, a
Potts victory here would make him only the third skipper in the history
of this regatta to repeat as the winner. Mason Woodworth lifted the
Prince of Wales Bowl three straight years from 2000-02, and Ed Trevelyan
captured back-to-back titles in 1976 and 1977.
Of note, Potts (Boston; Guardians of the Monohulls) is already
attempting a “three-peat” of sorts as the reigning two-time national
champion. David Storrs hoisted the Prince of Wales Bowl at the 2017
event by defeating Potts in the finals—an achievement Storrs, who passed
away in March, cherished—but Potts was named the U.S. champion because
Storrs competed with an international crew.
As they did Friday, Potts and his crew sailed to a 6-1 record on
Saturday, with a loss to Petersen the only blemish. In fact, Petersen
(Santa Ana, Calif.; Balboa YC) didn’t lose to anyone today. He and his
crew ran the table to surmount their 2-5 mark after Day 1.
“We made a huge change to our pre-start routine,” Petersen said when
asked about the turnaround. “We just said, ‘Look, we are going to get
the start that we want and we’re gonna be more aggressive in forcing
other people’s hands in the pre-start,’ and I think that was the key to
today.”
Petersen’s final victory to complete the Saturday sweep came against
Breault (San Francisco; St. Francis YC), who has already achieved her
best-ever result at the USMRC by reaching the semifinals. “I am so
psyched,” said Breault after learning she had clinched the semis berth.
“This was my goal going in…I’m very happy. And that’s gonna take some
pressure off my shoulders and hopefully I just come out to play. And
it’s anyone’s game, really.”
The home-girl Breault, who went 4-3 both Friday and Saturday, has
estimable experience with teammates Dana Riley Hayes and Hannah
Burroughs. Yet, here in a national championship, she is sailing with the
other crewmember Jack Barton for the first time. “We’ve never sailed
together before,” Breault said, and Barton “brings a totally awesome
energy to the team. When you’re starting off new against [opponents]
like this, it can be challenging—you have to do a lot of communication
and talk through things.”
Meanwhile, Holz from Chicago, IL has bested his quarterfinal finish at
his home club last year, and credits his crew for their overall 10-4
record in the round-robin. “We got around the track relatively cleanly,
which I think was the biggest component to our success,” he said. “Today
was a bit more [about] boat speed than yesterday, being a bit breezy.”
The small-by-California-standards quake, centered four miles off the
coast of neighboring Pacifica, came about five hours before racing
began. Participants sat through a three-hour delay to wait for the
breeze to arrive, compared to a two-hour holdup on Friday. At the first
start, the Bay featured light flooding conditions with wind at 8 knots,
conditions that persisted throughout the afternoon.
The faster track contributed to several pileups, near-misses and
disputes, which made for compelling viewing from the St. Francis Race
Deck, where spectators could eavesdrop on a good portion of the
competitors’ dialogue. Noting a shift in the current, the Race Committee
adjusted the courses for the final few flights of Day 2. “You could not
ask for a better breeze,” Petersen added. “I mean, the current’s always
tricky here, but you just had beautiful 10 to 12 knots out of the
west.”
A wind delay is again anticipated for the final day of racing, with
temperatures possibly flirting with the 80-degree mark. If the
semifinals, petite finals and finals follow the narrative of the
round-robin, then viewers can expect to see close-in skirmishes tight
around marks when these four elite sailors reconvene here on Sunday.
Day 3- Glass Out, Game Over
In a regatta shortened by windlessness, an unusual scenario for San
Francisco Bay, Pearson Potts and his crew claimed the Prince of Wales
Bowl and the U.S. Match Racing Championship for the second year running.
The Kilroy Realty U.S. Match Racing Championship in San Francisco Bay
started with two days of long postponements that yielded what chief
umpire Glenn Oliver termed “champagne conditions.” The scheduled 28
total matches over two round-robins went as planned. Nevertheless, with
no significant winds to permit the start of semifinal racing, Sunday at
St. Francis Yacht Club turned into a “lay day” that nobody wanted. Not
even Pearson Potts, the chief beneficiary of the cancellation.
Potts, who sailed to a 12-2 record over the Friday and Saturday sessions
to take first place in the round-robin, thus successfully defended his
national championship. After racing was called off, Potts raised the
Prince of Wales Bowl as he did in Chicago last year, and the Boston
resident has been named U.S. champion for the third year running. With
the victory, Potts also earns a berth in next April’s Ficker Cup at Long
Beach YC.
“We came in to defend; we never really saw ourselves [that way],” Potts
said. “So, we tried to win rather than defend. Any time you come to St.
Francis… there are so many currents and variables.” Potts and his crew
of Robert Savoie (now also a repeat champion), Lucas Adams and Tim
Siemers sailed the USMRC under the name Guardians of the Monohulls, a
nod to the incumbent, classic America’s Cup design.
Peter Holz (Chicago YC) ran second to his close friend Potts with a 10-4
mark over the two days, for the best USMRC finish of his career. By
going 7-0 on Saturday to finish 9-5 for the weekend, 17-year-old Jeffrey
Petersen is thought to be the youngest skipper in USMRC history to
stand on the podium, finishing in third. The other semifinalist Nicole
Breault ended up in fourth, also the best USMRC finish of her decorated
match-race career.
“We love going against Potts,” said Holz, who skippered a USMRC entry
for the fourth time in five years. “We’ve got a pretty even record
against him over the years, and it’s always a good battle, so it’s
pretty disappointing that San Francisco didn’t turn it on today.” Holz’s
Windy City Racing crew included IG Schottlaender, John Hammond and
Ellis Tonissi.
“When I come up to these regattas, I want to show that youth sailors can
do just as well anyone else in the room,” said Petersen, who in 2017
set the mark for youngest-ever skipper at this championship, when he
sailed to ninth place as a 15-year-old. “I’ll tell you this,” Petersen
added, “I’m gonna try to be the youngest winner of the [Prince of Wales]
Bowl in the coming years.” His Cricket Racing crew this week consisted
of Max Brennan and Ken Sherb, both 18, and Daniel Pegg, 16.
“I feel good about our results. I know we made mistakes, and I wish I
could get those races back, because they ended up counting a lot,” said
Breault, who competed with longtime Vela Racing teammates Dana Riley
Hayes and Hannah Burroughs, and with Jack Barton, who was sailing with
Breault for the very first time.
“For two days, we had very challenging conditions but excellent boat
handling and highly competitive teams. The seawall came into play and
some teams played it very, very well,” said Event Chair Bruce Stone, who
also noted the significance of both a female skipper and a youth crew
among the final four. “This is a very difficult place to sail—anywhere
else in the country, they would have been able to get a race off, but we
have some current here and we had some unusual wind direction today
because of the excessive heat, so we couldn’t really race across current
and set a fair racecourse.”
That said, Stone was quick to praise the Race Committee, headed by St.
Francis Race Director Graham Biehl, match umpires and the rest of the
organizing team for running the best races possible. “I think they did a
phenomenal job. I mean, the wind and tide lined up perfectly on the
first two days of racing, so we were racing into a flood. The ebbs
picked up at the end of each day and we were able to readjust the
racecourse pretty quickly without losing any time. The mark boat team
are very accomplished at that and I think we have a great group of
volunteers here making it happen.”
Behind the Potts team and the Holz crew were Jeff Petersen’s Balboa YC
team in third, Nicole Breault’s St Francis YC team in fourth, and Chris
Nesbitt’s San Diego YC team in fifth place. For
more U.S. J/22 Match Race Nationals sailing information
Add to Flipboard Magazine.
(Larchmont, NY)- Initially established in the early 1970’s by “The
Corinthians” who ran the regatta until 1999, the collegiate offshore
regatta was then picked up by Storm Trysail Club. The invitational
regatta is held annually out of Larchmont Yacht Club, who is a
co-organizer of the event in addition to the Storm Trysail Club and
Foundation.
We
put the mast back up, dialed in the rig to our settings and coordinated
with the crew to see how we could tackle the end of summer. In a
five-week span, we were full-on weekend warriors. We took 4 kids (and 3
wives!) on their first overnight race (drifter!) aboard KNEE DEEP
(taking 3rd). We cleaned up the boat by sunrise and fired up the diesel
for a Sunday Funday Race in the Bay, victory again!
