A Cinderella Story

Update Information from Mike Gross, Ultimate-20 Event Chair, Santa Cruz Yacht Club.

Day one of the 2001 Ultimate 20 Nationals in Santa Cruz, California has entered the record books. Fifteen boats made the start line with representation from Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and California. Boats cast off and sailed out to the race course beginning at around noon for the 13:00 start, except of course for Charlie Cushing who waited 'til 12:36 to make things a bit more of a challenging. Conditions before the start were heavy fog with a 6 kt. easterly and a 3-4 foot westerly swell. The fog lifted at about start time and temperatures warmed up into the low 70's. Race 1 and 2 were sailed in uncharacteristically light easterly breezes with a large and building westerly swell. Sunshine and comfortable temperatures were the only saving grace for a challenging day on the race course.

The forecast for racing on Friday is 10-20 kts westerly with 4-10 foot westerly swells. After a week or more of light and fluky winds everyone is itching for the steady breezes to return. At the time of this post (midnight PDT) the offshore buoys north and south of Santa Cruz are reporting winds from 11-25 kts with gusts as high as 30 and swells from 7-11 feet.

Day two of the 2001 Ultimate 20 Nationals in Santa Cruz, California has concluded. The forecast westerly breeze and swell failed, once again, to materialize on Friday. Race three was held in a steady, although light, easterly breeze. An aggressive start caught four boats over early with three not returning to clear themselves. Race four was held in a diminishing easterly breeze that had eight boats finish before the time limit expired leaving seven boats on the course. Race 5 was abandoned before the start and the fleet motored back to the harbor.

The Final day of racing of the 2001 Ultimate 20 Nationals in Santa Cruz, California has concluded. Saturday, the wind finally blew more favorably on the fleet. Three windward-leeward twice-around 'sprint' races were scheduled between 1:00 PM and 3:30 PM. Some rather remarkable Race Committee work by Dave Wahle on the start line and John McWaid, Gary Edelman and Jim Pate at the weather mark kept the line square and the course length adjusted to squeeze all three races in and give everyone time to haul out and head out for the awards banquet. Race 5 started in a 10 kt westerly breeze with most every bow on the line at the start signal. One lone port tacker was left in the second row. Race 6 took place in a slightly lighter westerly breeze, particularly at the leeward mark. This race had some very tight racing right up to the finish line as 2nd through 5th place boats were pretty much overlapped coming to the finish line. John Andrew, the series leader, gave up what looked like another 2nd place showing when he had to spin penalty turns, one boat length below the finish line, for at port-starboard infraction with Clifton Odom. Clifton, luffing to avoid collision with John coasted across the finish line, nearly giving up a point Bob Aman who crossed the line with speed only a few feet behind Clifton. Race 7 had the westerly breeze back up to 10 kts at the start.

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