2009 High Sierra Regatta

High Sierra Regatta

July 11-12, 2009

For official results, please visit the Fresno Yacht Club website.

Report by Webmaster John Papadopoulos (Lido 14 #6300)

If you take a look at the list of last year's competitors at the High Sierra Regatta and compare the results with this year, you would have to be nearly blind if you didn't see one of the most amazing improvements, year over year, in one and only one team - Mark and Sarah Ryan of the Alamitos Bay Lido fleet. They went from winning the 21 boat "B" fleet at the 2008 at the High Sierra Regatta to being just a single point from winning the "A" fleet in this year's regatta. And that's with most of the usual top A sailors present this year. Outstanding is all one can say.

If you don't know Mark and Sarah, they are our best young sailors (being in their early 20's). The brother and sister team is also highly visible at most regattas due to their very interesting hats - that they make themselves.

As they were so far ahead of this reporter in two of the three races, I cannot even begin to comment on their success.

In comparison, the rest of the regatta is boring to talk about. Yes, top dog Stu Robertson won the regatta. He led with confidence in two of three races and made what has to be one of the most spectacular recoveries from a major blunder - which I'll detail for all right now!

The back story is that the High Sierra Regatta race committee likes to use a rolling clock - set to 5 minutes. When a class has a general recall, as happened in race number 2, they hoist the General Recall flag and hold it there for 4 minutes, taking it down one minute before the next 5 minute interval starts. That's all straight and narrow to the racing rules. So one minute after the flag goes down, the new start sequence begins. However about three quarters of the fleet didn't understand this (despite it being clear in the sailing instructions and being noted in the skipper's meeting) and started one minute after the general recall flag dropped (i.e. 5 minutes after the recalled start). And they raced hard towards the Boy Scout Camp, as is standard practice at this regatta. Some of those that knew better took advantage of the circumstances and "raced" along with them to keep them focused on sailing away from the start line, while a few lingered at the start line, licking their chops on being the select few who might actually complete the race correctly.

Those "in the know" that "started" along with the fleet eventually turned back so they could get a real start. The rest that were "racing" slowly figured out that the start was still in the future and were now stressing out as they couldn't make it back in time to the start! Stu was doing really well in this "race" and we can only speculate how late he may have been to the real start but let's assume that he was the furthest in the front and had the longest to go back. Ooops. But that only makes the following part of the story more interesting.

So the official start happens and the "in the know" fleet sails thru the returning fleet with devious grins. No doubt every one of them was thinking "Finally I get to beat Stu Robertson in a Lido 14 race."

That dream lasted a long time as the fleet made its way up the lake to the distant "Mark 5" weather mark. But while they were racing hard, they didn't notice (or perhaps care) that the late-to-the-start racers were sailing fast and climbing thru the fleet. It's an embarrassing thing to have someone that's very late to the start catch you, but we accept it as part of the vagaries of the sport and dream of the day when it's our turn to have that happen to us.

If you happened to be in Lido 14 2511, your turn was up and you would have been overjoyed at the timing of the once-in-a-decade-of-racing-at-the-HSR HUGE left shift lift by dam #1 that gave you an express leap forward - perhaps 30 or more boat lengths - right past everyone to get to the windward mark first.

If you were in boat 6300 or 5051, the two boats duking it out for the lead until then, you were very embarrassed (and pissed!) after having sailed really hard to be on the outside of the very same shift - meaning you're getting clobbered.

But that wasn't all - Stu not only had whatever it took to get into the lead, but he humbled everyone again by extending his lead (on everyone, of course) on the long downwind leg. Phew...what a race! Enough said for the moment about this regatta - except to say that 37 boats in a very down economy is simply excellent.

A	Skipper & Crew	Fleet	Sail#	R1	R2	R3	T
1^st	Stuart Robertson & Mike Anctil	7	2511	1	1	3	5
2^nd	Mark & Sarah Ryan	6	4790	2	3	1	6
3^rd	Kurt & Anne Wiese	1	6240	4	4	5	13
4^th	John Papadopoulos & Stacie Brandt	1	6300	8	2	4	14
5^th	Kelly Cantley & Kevin Thomas	2	5036	5	7	6	18
6^th	Whit & Erin Batchelor	7	3113	3	14	2	19
7^th	Bob Yates & Pat Kincaid	1	5051	6	5	8	19
8^th	Walter Johnson & Alyssa Aoki	1	6288	12	8	7	27
9^th	Ken & Sandyi Campbell	7	4509	10	6	14	30
10^th	Steve & Anne Schupak	1	6262	9	12	9	30
11^th	David Carroll	7	4960	13	9	11	33
12^th	Grant Williams	7	4300	15	10	15	40
13^th	Randy Carper & Pete LaBahn	1	6100	14	15	12	41
14^th	Steve McJones	6	2153	7	18	18	43
15^th	Susan Taylor	2	4834	16	11	19	46
16^th	Steve & Kristina Potter	2	6284	20	17	10	47
17^th	Peter Beale	2	6274	17	13	17	47
18^th	Kathryn Reed & Cyndi Martinich	6	3747	19	16	16	51
19^th	Harris & Amy Hartman	8	4821	18	21/DNC	13	52
20^th	Jim & Kay Sterner	80	5110	11	21/DNC	21/DNC	53
B	Skipper & Crew	Fleet	Sail#	R1	R2	R3	T
1^st	Chris & Kit Lockwood	59	5050	1	2	1	4
2^nd	Jonathan Carroll		960	3	1	2	6
3^rd	Butch Michel & Terry Johnson	UA	6166	5	5	3	13
4^th	Paul Makielski	6	6277	4	4	6	14
5^th	Charles Smith	2	6337	2	8	5	15
6^th	Tracy Conn	6	4029	8	3	8	19
7^th	Jim Drury & Bruce Iwasson	6	4963	6	6	12	24
8^th	Jock & Lili McGraw	6	5127	7	11	7	25
9^th	Ryan Butcher	6	4578	15	7	4	26
10^th	Mike Baumann	6	5058	10	10	10	30
11^th	Mark Dawson	8	6272	9	14	11	34
12^th	Larry Hoskinson	2	6197	12	9	13	34
13^th	Tom Zinn		3606	11	12	18/DNC	41
14^th	Cynthia Heavrin & Holly Davis	6	4299	14	13	14	41
15^th	Susan Dijkman		6023	18/DNC	18/DNC	9	45
16^th	Terry Hensley		4617	13	18/DNC	18/DNC	49
17^th	Patrick Gorey		3000	18/DNF	18/OCS	18/DNF	54

Fleet 1 = Newport Beach, CA
Fleet 2 = Marina Del Rey, CA
Fleet 6 = Alamitos Bay, CA
Fleet 7 = Mission Bay, CA
Fleet 8 = Sacramento, CA
Fleet 59 = Morro Bay, CA
Fleet 80 = Seattle, WA
Fleet UA = Unattached Member

This report is not to be revised and then republished, in part or whole, without the permission of the author.

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B

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