1998 OLD NEWS

1998 Nationals

(September 1998)

Picture perfect weather with great sailing conditions (for all but the last race) and very little kelp greeted the sailors participating in this year’s Schock 35 National Championship regatta. Right from the outset, the regatta, hosted by San Diego YC out on the traditional Coronado Roads venue, turned into a six boat battle with Outlier, Ricochet, Shillelagh, Whistler, Wild Thing and Wings trading the six top spots amongst themselves race after race. By the time that the dust settled from the first two days of racing, it looked much like a shoot out between Ricochet, Whistler, Outlier and Wild Thing with Ricochet on the inside track. The sailing conditions were no doubt a nightmare for Rico as they headed out only to see some of the more normal sailing conditions for which San Diego is famous. With positions at stake, corners were punched by the leaders – like in Vegas, there were more losers than winners with boats that sailed in the top six all weekend seen way, way back in the back of the fleet at the finish, especially in the last race. The big winner of the day was Troublemaker, which, after languishing way in the back all weekend came alive with two bullets to send the crew home with smiles on their faces and thought of what might have been. There was not to be another repeat champion this year – Wild Thing, sailed out of Coronado Yacht Club by new owner Karen Zylstra in her rookie year in the fleet walked away with the top honors.

But it will be the events off the water that will be remembered for years to come. An owner’s party was graciously hosted by Sharon and Dennis Case a their home on Point Loma, setting the tone for a class event. Sharon also worked very hard to produce this year’s annual banquet at SDYC. Unexpectedly, Ray Becket of Absolute set the tone for the evening when he accepted his participation trophy – a large glass mug filled with beer (actually mostly foam) – and proceeded to chug the whole thing in what appeared to be unbeatable record time. What followed was each and every owner coming forward to accept their mug and fall to the peer pressure of the crowd to try to top Ray. An astersk has to go by the record however, since some owners send their DD’s up to accept for them. The 1999 rules are rumored to be amended to include new definitions of who may or may not be a designated drinker.

Hands down winner of the 1998 Wooden Spoon was Wild Thing. Apparently, on the way out to the race start, they realized that the mainsail was not on board. In fact, it was a couple of hours of motoring away, back at the Coronado YC. That alone would have qualified them for the award; however, they soon concocted a plan to retrieve the errant sail. It seems that they took the boat into the surf line to drop crew off to swim to shore. From there, with little time to spare, the crew ran to the YC, grabbed the sail and returned with a (uh hmm) borrowed dinghy, to swim the sail back out to the boat.

Wooden Spoon honorable mention for the regatta has to go to Wings. Wings was hit on a port/starboard by White Fang (stbd.) while trying to cross the starboard tack layline parade. After they did a 270 which most everyone thought was a 360, no one protested them; but, Wings made the puzzling decision to push a protest that they themselves filed all the way to the room resulting in their own disqualification. But for this DSQ, Wings would have won Nationals again.

Following in an unofficial Nationals tradition of sorts, this year’s practical joke was on Ricochet. Rumor has it that upon arrival at the club on Sunday morning their boat was found missing and crew members were seen wandering the docks looking for their vessel which had apparently spontaneously come loose from its dock lines during the night only to fortunately find its way into a slip with the morning tide.

Many thanks to all those who worked so hard to make our 1998 Nationals a big success.

Nationals Results

Mischief Shatters Schock 35 Ensenada Record

(May 1998)

After nailing the start at the weather end, Carolyn Nelson-Hardy and the crew of Mischief sailed a perfect race and went on to win the 51^st annual Newport to Ensenada race in a new Schock 35 record time of 13.67 hours corrected time. That betters the old record of 17.02 hours held by Pipeline from 1995. Mischief finished the race at 4:30 in the morning followed less than ten minutes later by defending champ Piranha. Both boats beat the first of the 6 J-35's to finish, Diablo. In fact it was the closest race from top to bottom ever with all seven boats in the Schock 35 fleet shattering the old record and finishing less than one hour apart.

The Ensenada Race was anything but slow – Mischief averaged almost 8 knots speed over course. 3/4 ounce spinnakers were set either at the start or shortly thereafter in 8-10 knots of wind on a tight reach. By the time the fleet was off Point Loma, a squall line moved thru with 20 knot winds and surfing conditions. On Piranha, we never had to jibe or change sails until 4 miles from the finish! Upon the realization that the annual ETA prediction of "if we hold this speed we’ll be in Ensenada in time for breakfast" might really happen, watch plans went out the window and it was a full sprint to the finish with sleep delayed until after the race. Boatspeed never dropped below 5 knots at any time. The entire Schock and J-35 fleets were all within sight of each other until cover of darkness. Although we all sailed within a couple of miles of rhumb line, Mischief leveraged her position as the most inside boat to victory.

It was great to see Carolyn enjoy collecting her trophy. Our friendly pre-race bet was also paid on the podium, to which Carolyn said "I’m having this framed!" Its double or nothing for 1999 Carolyn – I want my dollar back!

Results:

1998 -- Season Preview

(January 1998)

New faces and new regattas greet the fleet in 1998.  At least three new teams will be on the starting line on March 7 in Newport Beach.  "Veni Vidi Vici" finally sold, "Aftershock" has become "Ripple" and "Whiplash" has moved to Long Beach (to take advantage of the sweet 75 PH rating there?).  Last year's lineup of drift-a-thon venues/events has been replaced with a more balanced schedule that is spread out over more of the year.  In 1998 you just might use the 3/4 ounce spinnaker more than once. 

To start with, we will be the premier class at the first annual Schock love fest aka the Bill Schock Memorial Regatta in Newport.  This is the first time the class has had a high point event before mid-April in many years since Midwinters was diluted by splitting the class into three venues and removing it from the high point. 

Next up for many boats will be the new NOOD.  Although not a high point in '98, Sailing World has been real good about putting big color photos of crew in the magazine after this event so look for a good turnout.  If you haven't heard, seems that SDYC flexed its muscles and grabbed this event away from Hurricane Gulch.  Instead of a June date, it also moves ahead of Ahmanson to March 20-22.

Next up is the test-the-marriage three week marathon of Ahmanson/Ensenada/Yachting Cup.   Be sure to catch up on the household chores before mid-April and schedule a romantic vacation afterward with your mate!  Seriously though, if you don't look forward to this triangle of racing, its time to sell the boat and take up golf.

Next up is two trips to Long Beach.  Unfortunately, with the move of the NOOD, there will be no racing in Hurricane Gulch this year, but at least we got Long Beach Race Week back on the high point schedule.  What can you say about Coast Cadillac/North Sails Race Week -- well, for my money this is the best regatta both on and off the water year after year.  Bruce, Margo and Mark Golison should be inducted into the sailing hall of fame for gving us more smiles per hour of racing than any event organizers in Southern California in recent memory.

Lipton Cup -- The organizers should have unofficial trophies for teams entered in the $2,000 and under category.  With Lipton Cup budgets rumored to be about $50,000 among the top teams, its all crispy new sail inventories for some of the boats at this event.   Pretty cool, if you represent one of the clubs with deep pockets.  Behind the scenes battle right now is over whether the regatta will be run inside the bay south of the Coronado Bridge or out where the most valuable crewmember is the one with the bruised chest at the end of the day from continuous removal of kelp.