San Diego NOODs 2012

The south bay in San Diego proved once again to be a great place to test your skills and dust off the winter rust. It wasn't the warm weather relief we were used to, but a great excuse to gather with other U20 sailors and have some fun. Five Ultimate’s were signed up for the 3 day event but past president Cliff Odom was called away on business. That left 4 boats to duke it out. On Friday we were treated to classic San Diego conditions, beautiful sunshine, and 7 to 12 knots of breeze, flat water and no kelp! Grant Wooten and his team on Mr Happy sailed flawlessly with great starts and stayed in phase all day leading around almost all marks and winning the 3 races of the day. Road warrior Brad Lawson with a new crew was hot on Mr Happy's tail, with the occasional lead change. I was sailing with Alan Madsen on DogOnIt out of Salt Lake City along with Scott Gilmore. My first time as tactician in the South Bay showed I should stick to driving. Small gains were the order of the day as boats split trying both sides of the course only to converge with the same leads. Perpetual winner Steve Bowman did not have his usual crew and struggled at the mark roundings after his pickup crew injured his shoulder. We were one point behind Redbeard sneaking a second in the second race, with Unicorn in fourth. Saturday a storm blew in from the northwest with winds in the mid-twenties gusting to 35. Boats headed to the line but the RC could not get marks set and canceled racing for the day. Mr Happy made an impressive return to a lee dock by swooping in dropping the main and backing up under bare poles complete with truck backup sounds, then turning at the last minute to come alongside the dock.

Sunday the winds were still blowing hard, and the RC kept us at the dock for an hour hoping for the winds to settle down. Mr Happy decided not to risk possible breakage and pulled his boat. Steve on Unicorn was coaming the docks looking for a replacement for his injured third crew. So Redbeard and DogOnIt headed out in 20 knot winds with 30 knot gusts. Under reefed main we were able to get a good start on Redbeard but could not point as high and were quickly rolled. Redbeard led at the windward mark by 20 boat lengths. On the final downwind leg we gybed away early looking for more pressure. We were on the favored board and started to run wing on wing under white sails which put us right on the finish. Redbeard was reaching higher but sailing more distance. We quickly closed the gap and once on their line gybed for the finish and the win. This put both boats in a tie for the lead and it would come down to a winner take all final race. The last race would be just a windward leeward. We were able to lead Redbeard and Unicorn (who was sailing 2 up, way to go Steve!) off the line. Once again Redbeard was able to point higher and led around the windward mark. Redbeard hoisted their kite and took off doing 13 knots. We decided to keep ours in the bag to see if it would go pear shaped for them. They doused before they gybed and now had a lead we could not overcome and sailed across the line for the win. Great job by Brad and his crew! We will be back next year for the return of the PCC's in San Diego.

Sail	Name	Skipper	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
63	Redbeard	Brad Lawson	DSA	2	3	2	2	1	10	1
138	DogOnIt	Alan Madsen	GSLYC	3	2	3	1	2	11	2
67	Mr Happy	Steve Crooke	ABYC	1	1	1	6/DNC	6/DNC	15	3
29	Unicorn	Steve Bowman	CorYC	4	4	4	6/DNC	3	21	4
6	Ethel Merlyn	Clifton Odom	MBYC	6/DNC	6/DNC	6/DNC	6/DNC	6/DNC	30	5

Mark Allen