Expecting typical Long Beach conditions of strong breeze and white caps, the 19 mostly San Diego area teams were greeted with light shifty winds of anywhere between 5-8 knots throughout the weekend… kinda like, well… San Diego!“ We were looking forward to heavy air,” Driscoll said, “wanting to work on our heavy air sailing. But this was a lot like San Diego, which of course our boat is optimized for.”
Of the five races in the regatta, Triple Play only had two first-place finishes, getting two fourths and one third-place finish in the last race of the day. But consistency paid off as they picked off competitors one by one, race by race. “We kept whittling away, whittling away,” Driscoll said, “getting good starts in each race to keep us in there.” Posting second place for the regatta was local favorite Gary Mozer, LBYC, and his team onboard Current Obsession 2. “This certainly was not normal Long Beach conditions,” Mozer said. “If it was, we would have had a local advantage. But consistency won and that’s what Triple Play did. “In our first race Saturday, we went the wrong way and that was the defining moment of the regatta.” Mozer finished eighth in that race.
Third place went to Bennet Greenwald, SDYC, and his crew on Perseverance. “The wind machine failed to work this weekend,” Greenwald said. But this is a very competitive fleet and it was always close racing. “There were boats out there always looking for an inch, straining for that perfect set… and today, that was Triple Play.” Praise came from many sailors for the event organizer, Dennis Case, SDYC, who also competed on his J/105, Wings. “I think this was a big success,” Case said, “to get this many boats together from Santa Barbara to San Diego for a regatta… this was quite an accomplishment. “Our plan is to continue it annually, to make it a “must attend” event for our fleet. This was our most significant race of the year and because of this success, it certainly gives us bragging rites.”
John Bush, Vice Commodore of Long Beach Yacht Club summed up, “We were very happy to host the first annual J/105 SoCal Championship here and it was great to see so many boats from all up and down the coast participate. We hope to carry on this tradition and look forward to their return in 2010.”
Final Results
1. Triple Play, Chuck Driscoll/Tom Hurlburt, SDYC, 1-4-1-4-3, 13 points
2. Current Obsession 2, Gary Mozer, LBYC, 8-1-2-3-4, 18
3. Perseverance, Bennet Greenwald, SDYC, 7-2-3-2-5, 19
4. Free Enterprise, Alex Rasmussen, SBYC, 4-11-4-5-1, 25
5. Javelin, Doug & Pam Werner, SDYC, 3-5-7-1-11, 27
Complete final results available at:
www.lbyc.org .
