One Point Between Porter & Ullman in Santa Cruz
The second day of the Melges 24 North American Championship brought more difficult racing as yet again Santa Cruz failed to deliver its typical conditions. Of the three races completed the first two were largely light and shifty giving the Race Committee plenty to keep them busy. The day's final race eventually brought a respectable 16-18 knots, sadly accompanied by rain, but the wind died away again leaving one boat unable to finish within the time limit.
With six races now sailed Brian Porter (Chicago, IL) and his Full Throttle team of Harry Melges, Dave Navin and John Porter retain their lead by just one point from Dave Ullman (Newport Beach, CA) with his crew Bill Hardesty, Brian Hutchinson, Casey Smith & Shana Phelan aboard Pegasus 505. Seadon Wijsen (San Francisco, CA) sailing Pareto Optimal put in a very consistent 7, 4, 1 day to move up from 8th to 3rd on 26 points, just ahead of Bruce Ayres (Newport Beach, CA) in Monsoon who dropped down from 3rd to 4th with 29 points.
After a hard night of excellent partying courtesy of Pusser's Rum, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co and Red Bull there were more than a few sore heads as they crews left the dock this morning. Unfortunately for those under the weather it was to be a testing day. Despite the shifts the right hand side of the beat was favoured with virtually no one venturing left of centre all day. With a 1230 start time and difficult conditions PRO Hank Stuart knew he had is work cut out to get all three scheduled races completed so went to Z flag from the outset.
Despite this there was still a general recall, followed by individual recalls on the start of race four and a total of 17 boats were penalised. At the first weather mark it was Alba Batzill (GER), helming Courage X for Eddy Eich, who led the fleet, a position he declined to relinquish for the remainder of the race. Frenchman Hubert Guy, sailing Enigma, rounded second from Ayres in third with Philippe Kahn (Santa Cruz, CA) aboard Pegasus 575 fourth. As Batzill consolidated his lead there was plenty of jockeying for position behind him. In the closing moments of the run Philippe Kahn slid into second 2nd with Guy 3rd. Brian Porter struggled out of the start but despite rounding the first mark well down the fleet he sailed an impressive race to pull up into 4th.
A shift after the sequence started force the Committee to postpone and re-lay the line for race five. As they did this the wind started to build and by the time the got underway it was up to around 12 knots. Fortunately the competitors were getting the hang of the Z flag and only 3 boats were called back on individual recall allowing the fleet away at the first attempt. Batzill had a disastrous start when he made contact with Stan Eriksson and ended up drifting backwards in irons as the fleet sailed away from him. Porter headed the fleet at the windward mark from Ayres and defending North American Champion Argyle Campbell (Newport Beach, CA) who was troubling the front of the fleet for the first time in the regatta. Down the run Campbell made the smartest initial gybe and by a third of the way down had slipped into the lead from Porter. Stephen Pugh (Sausalito, CA) had pulled up in to 3rd with Ayres 4th and Ullman 5th. A big right hand shift resulted in a 15 degree course change for the second beat. As they rounded the second weather mark dark clouds were heralded a wind increase allowing the boats to plane for the first time all day. Some quick thinking by Ayres put him into the lead and he crossed comfortably ahead of Campbell with Porter 3rd, Ullman 4th and Wijsen 5th. Despite his disastrous start Batzill clawed his way up to 7th.
As the Committee set up for race six the rain started and the wind increased to 16-18 knots. For the first time in the regatta the fleet got away clean at the first attempt. Dave Ullman got the best of the start and the best of the beat to round with an astonishing lead at the weather mark. He had the bit between his teeth a just kept on going, finishing with a 52 second lead. Although Eich looked good in second after the first beat it was not to be his race and he ended up 7th again. Having finally found his form Campbell sailed another consistent race to finish 2nd with Porter 3rd and Philippe Kahn 4th.
Racing continues until Sunday with four further races schedule.
Our thanks to event sponsors Pusser's Rum, Red Bull, New England Ropes & Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.