Shadden Series (1 of 4)
October 4, 2009
California Yacht Club

Report by Stephen Long

October 4th was the second event in the Shadden series. California Yacht Club hosted this event.

Shadden is a CFJ event and we were one of a 53-boat fleet. It was a one-day event, but still lots of fun. At the same time the event was also very challenging.

We were sailing in 25 knots of wind with gusts of 30 knots. Another factor that made this difficult was the big waves—eight feet! Race committee checked the weather forecast prior to the event and made an amendment to the sailing instructions. The amendment said that if they felt it was too windy they would raise the G flag to signal that the use of spinnakers would be prohibited.

We only had two races and on the second race they raised the G flag. This didn’t change strategy very much because most of the fleet was too scared to fly their spinnakers anyway. It was almost just as fast to sail wing on wing the first race, and probably a better idea because a majority of the people that tried to fly spinnakers the first race ended up flipping their boats.

Soren and I did extremely well at Shadden. We got 7th overall, while finishing 12th in the first race and 8th in the second race.

Results

Report by John Long

The conditions for the first race were 15-20 knots wind with 6-8 ft combined seas.
For the second race it was 20+ knots with gusts pushing 30 and the seas were building to more like 8ft with huge white caps.

The first race some kids tried to fly the spinnaker after rounding the windward mark. Most were unable to fly it successfully and ended up in the water. Stephen and Soren decided against the spinnaker and chose to go wing-on-wind dead down wind with the swell! It worked well for them and they were able to pass a lot of boats. Stephen said he thought he was going to bury the bow on just about every wave. Both him and Soren pushed to the back of the boat as much as they could and were able to keep the boat upright. Going to weather Stephen said there were numerous time where he felt like he actually caught air going over the oncoming swells. I believe they finished 12th for the first race.

After the first race the race committee decided "no spinnakers", just to much carnage. This was more of a survival race as less than half the fleet was able to finish the race. Merely keeping the boat upright would guarantee a really good finish. Stephen and Soren kept the boat from flipping and got a really good finish. They finished 8th in the second race.

Stephen and Soren finished 7th overall which is really good considering the caliber of sailors at the event. Most of the group is much older and more experienced than our two sailors. All six teams that finished ahead of them were notable teams. Stephen and Soren beat a lot of really good teams as well. Quite an accomplishment for only their second Shadden and first Shadden together. It was a wild ride and both had their doubts at times. On the ride home they were really exited that they had successfully overcome the conditions and their fears.

This was a great confidence builder for both kids. They now believe that they can handle adverse conditions should they occur. Stephen also believes that he can compete at this level. He knows that he needs to improve in some areas, but he does think he can compete. Stephen is looking forward to the next Shadden and I hope Soren is too.

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