The SBYSF/SBSSA Hot Chocolate Regatta is now in the books,
after a great day of clinics and racing! Twenty junior sailors
attended the regatta, sailing off West Beach in the Santa
Barbara Harbor and taking advantage of nearly perfect conditions.
It was a little cloudy, with temperatures in the high 60s
and a decent breeze that filled in just in time for the
clinics; just another February in Southern California!
After registering and rigging their boats, the sailors were
assigned to three clinic groups based on their sailing experience.
Instructor Tom Preston of the UCSB Sailing Team led the
Bronze clinic, reviewing some basic rules and procedures
before explaining a “Follow-the-leader/Tack on the
whistle” drill. Tom had his group rehearse the drill
on the beach, before they all jumped in their boats and
gave it a shot out on the water. After just ten minutes,
this group of sailors were executing the drill far better
than I had expected, nearly as well as the SBYSF Race Team!
The Silver clinic was led by Ryan Sullivan, also of the
UCSB Sailing Team. Ryan’s group learned how to get
a ‘line sight’, in order to improve their starts
and be exactly on the starting line (but not over!) at the
start of each race. After discussing a few ways to sight
the line, the Silver group headed out on the water to practice
what they had learned, and after they all had a chance to
get a line sight Ryan ran a series of practice starts to
warm them up for the racing.
SBYSF Instructor and UCSB team member Nick Kaschak ran the
Gold clinic, explaining an advanced Team Racing drill to
the six junior sailors in his group. The idea is that groups
of three boats sail around a course, and the boat in 1st
place tries to slow the 2nd boat down in order to help the
3rd place boat ‘leap-frog’ into that 1st spot.
When a successful pass has been executed, the drill continues
in the same manner. Sounds complicated! The sailors looked
a bit confused on the beach, especially with one of the
top college team racers in the country firing questions
at them, but after Nick brought them out on the water to
try the drill they got the hang of it pretty quickly…very
impressive!
After about twenty minutes of organized chaos out on the
water, with three groups of sailors working on three different
drills simultaneously as three coach boats chased them all
around the harbor, we all headed back to the beach for a
quick snack break. The actual racing began at 1:15, the
13-boat Sabot fleet starting first followed by the 7-boat
Optimist fleet. Over the next two hours, we ran 5 races
for the Sabots and 4 for the Opti fleet. Coaches followed
both fleets around the harbor all afternoon, helping less
experienced sailors with the basics and offering strategy
advice and tips to everyone as they raced around the course.
The regatta was informal, and competition was not the main
focus. At the end of the day, we had an awards ceremony
complete with a giant thermos of hot chocolate, and gave
out some special Sportsmanship prizes and participation
awards to all sailors. We were keeping score, however, and
recognized the top finishers in each fleet with a keepsake
Hot Chocolate mug.
Thanks again to all who participated, and a very big THANK
YOU to all the SBYSF Race Team volunteers who helped out
this weekend: Brenna Hensley, Newt Cutcliffe, Nick Perez,
Matt Long, Soren Wilde, Jonathan Beardon, Stephen Long,
and Tucker Atterbury.
Results:
Open Sabot (13 Boats, 5 Races):
1- Kyra Oakes (8pts)
2- Caroline Gay (19 pts)
3- Christopher Roteman (19pts)
4- Ryan Eastwood (21pts)
5- Maria DeAngelis (25pts)
Open Optimist (7 Boats, 4 Races)
1- Evan Heffernan (4pts)
2- Congo Bergseteren-Strange (10pts)
3- Will Curtis (11pts)
Photos
