2019 Snipe North American Championship at San Diego Yacht Club - Day 2
by Casey Allocco 8 Sep 2019 04:32 BST
6-8 September 2019
2019 Snipe North American Championship © San Diego Yacht Club
The pressure was on for the Snipe fleet today. Ending yesterday's races with a three-way tie for second between George Szabo, Doug Hart, and Peter Commette made today's scores crucial to the outcome on the score sheet. In addition to their competition, the course got a little more crowded. Joining the Snipe fleet on their course for the San Diego Olympic Classes Regatta was the International Finn Class.
The wind picked up to about 9 knots before dropping down to 7, giving the boats a little more speed time then yesterday. All of the sailors were happy to pick up their pace.
Holding their position in first place is Enrique Quintero and his crew Kathleen Tocke with 7 points. Following behind in second is George Szabo and crew Dianna Waterbury with 14 points and Doug Hart and crew Diego Escobar in third with 16 points.
"We really just wanted to get off the line, go fast and go the right way. Unfortunately, the south breeze filled in before the first race and tightened up the shots a little. That wasn't good as wind got light and we moved pretty slow. We finished last in the first race and won the second race... The third race we got to first but ended up coming in second. Overall it was a pretty good day. We will see what tomorrow brings," Szabo explained.
Quintero and Tocke had another successful couple of races today, finishing in the top two for all of them. Hart and Escobar - also trying to break the tie - won the first race of the day, giving them a leg up over Peter Commette who sailed two threes and a six.
"I have a new super crew sailing with me, Allie Shand (12)," Commette started. She is athletic, coordinated and has an athletes mind. We had two races where we were in the noise a little bit. Towards the end things got really tight and Allie knocked out all of the gybes perfectly."
After the races, sailors in all fleets enjoyed a social and presentation by Pan American Games Bronze and Silver medalists on SDYC's Sail Wash Lawn. Following, sailors began their preparation for the final day of the Snipe North American Championship and SDOCR.
Tomorrow (Sunday), all fleets will make their way back out to their ocean course for their final series of races.
San Diego Olympic Classes Regatta Update
Today (Saturday), marked the first day of the 2nd annual San Diego Olympic Classes Regatta. Sailors of all ages came out for a weekend of beautiful, champagne sailing. Participating fleets included the Snipes, Finns, 29ers, I420s, Nacra 15s, Lasers and Laser Radials.
SDYC Junior Staff Commodore and founding Commodore of the SDOCR Michael Dorgan finished first in the Finn fleet. "It was awesome. We had perfect weather with sunny skies and blue water. I just sailed calm. I was watching this younger guy, Eric Anderson (2nd place), who's been sailing a lot with Caleb Paine. He was moving all over the place and I just tried not to steer much with the helm and try to use my body weight," stated Dorgan.
In addition to our experienced fleet of Finn sailors, there were five other fleets with a generally younger average age. Jordan (13) and Grant Janov (16) were two of those sailors, taking first in the 29er fleet. The brothers have been sailing together for one year. "There was a lot of team effort. We know how each other will react and we have been practicing a lot together," explained Jordan.
Another high-school aged duo in first place is Jack Sutter (17) and Charlotte Versavel (16) in the Nacra 15 fleet. The two started off the regatta today with two bullets, followed by a four and two, gaining the first place position over Kelly Holthus and Hoel Menard.
"We're always trying to improve in our light wind since we're from San Francisco," started Sutter. "In the third race we had a penalty at the starting line, so we got fourth. Tomorrow we're just going to push harder and complete more of our goals."
"We're just trying to practice and get better," chimed in Versavel. Long term, the duo is reaching for the Youth Worlds, and then an Olympic campaign.
Sunday marks the final day of the 2nd annual OCR. This year, the regatta has 76 boats sailing and over 110 skippers and crews.
Full results available here.