The 2013 Ultimate 20 North American Championships were held
in Marina Del Rey, California September 12-15, 2013. My club, Del Rey Yacht Club, hosted the event. The entry list included 14 competing boats
from every corner of the country. Thursday was the check in, registration and
measurement day. There was time in the
afternoon for all the competitors to head out to the race course area off of
the Venice pier in the Santa Monica Bay to participate in practice starts and
race course familiarization. Eric Shampain
from Ullman Sails Newport Beach volunteered to conduct the practices,
photograph the competitors and then to follow up back at the club with critique
analysis and sail trim coaching.
Friday started with a 10 AM skipper’s meeting. The first race was scheduled for Noon. The weather was near perfect with typical
temperatures in the mid to high 70s and winds around 10 knots from the
Southwest. Peter Glick, Rear Commodore
of DRYC and the PRO for the event was able to get 4 races started and
finished. In the first race, Ken Jones (Rumbullion,
actually the chartered Ricochet) from Lake Norman, North Carolina, perfectly
timed a port tack start and sailed a flawless race to a convincing win. The star of the day was Chris Chambers (Black
Sheep) from Sandpoint Idaho. Black Sheep
pulled off wins in the next 3 races with stellar tactics and perfect boat
handling. This was championship sailing
at its best. At the end of day 1, Black Sheep was the clear favorite with a
score of 2, 1, 1, 1. Mark Allen (Junta),
our class president from Salt Lake Idaho put together a strong set of races
with finishes of 4, 2, 2, 3. Toon Town
was still in the hunt with 3, 3, 3, 2. At the end of day 1, Black Sheep held a
solid lead with Junta and Toon Town tied for second 6 points back.
Saturday brought rolling fog banks and 40 degree wind
shifts. One minute the sky was crystal
clear, the next minute low hanging fog would roll in and the whole world
including the race marks disappeared. Despite the challenging conditions, the
PRO pulled off 3 races. The last race
was especially exhausting as it took all of our concentration to drive the boat
through the leftover chop in a dying breeze.
We had a very good day with a score of 2, 2, 1. Black Sheep stumbled a little with finishes
of 3, 11, 6. A jib tack snap shackle
releasing at the leeward mark contributed to their poor finish in race two. That race would become their discard. Junta’s day was mixed as they started with an
8, but then came back strong with a 1, 2.
At the end of day 2, the results after a discard showed Toon Town in the
lead with 13 points and Junta and Black Sheep tied for second 1 point
behind. This was a 3 boat battle that
was going to go down to the wire.
On the way in from the race course, my #2 crew Keith
Magnussen found out that his mother was gravely ill at a hospital in Houston
Texas and the prognosis was very grim. When
I got to the club, I petitioned the class to replace Keith with an alternate so
that he could fly to Houston that night to see his mother. The class did not approve the petition and I
was prepared to resign from the regatta.
Keith stepped up and said he would complete the regatta before making
travel arrangements.
Sunday was a very taxing day mentally. Toon Town’s starts really suffered. We were last off the line in the first
race. Junta had sailed out to a
commanding lead. Keith put his personal turmoil aside, knuckled down and
started to call perfect tactics. We
rounded the first weather mark in 10th. We passed 2 more boats and rounded the
leeward mark in 8th. Keith
really pulled a rabbit out of the hat, and with masterful skill calling shifts got
us up to 3rd at the last windward mark. We had great downwind speed with our new
Ullman spinnaker all weekend, and it came through again as we passed one more
boat to take 2nd to Junta’s 1st. Junta and Toon Town were now tied in the
lead. Black Sheep pulled another 11th,
and that was going to make their championship hopes very difficult to attain.
The next race was nearly as difficult. Toon Town got off to a slow start, and Junta
was sitting on top of us. We engaged in
a tacking duel with Junta while managing to pick off some of the boats around
us. Junta finished 3rd and
Toon Town finished 5th. Using
throw outs (8th for Junta, 5th for Toon Town), Junta now
led Toon Town by 2 points. The wind
piped up for the last race, and Toon Town felt especially fast. We started at the boat end, but pulled our
first over early. After returning to
start we were dead last. Junta was in
the lead pack off to the left side of the course. Toon Town started playing shifts to the right
side, and by the time we got to the weather mark we had sailed up to 5th.
Junta was buried in the fleet. That is about
how we finished and we both used race 10 as our discard. Junta had to keep their 8th place
finish from race 5 and that was the championship. Whew! This was the closest regatta I can remember participating
in. The pressure was crushing. The level
of skillsmanship extended much further into the fleet then just the first 3
boats as 6 different boats won individual races. Keith Ziegler (VP from the Bankrupt) from
Detroit won race 5 and Tom Burden (Layla), from Santa Cruz and my perennial
nemesis on the West Coast, finished the series with spectacular twin wins in
race 9 and 10. This was a fantastic
regatta.
I want to thank all of the competitors for travelling from
around the country to participate at my home club DRYC. There are many friends in the U20 class that
I see far too infrequently. I’d like to thank Commodore Paul Artof, Race Chair
Sterling Tallman and Committee Chair Tucker Strasser for agreeing to, no,
jumping at the chance to run a national ranked championship regatta. I’d like to thank my crew, Dennis Martinelli,
who knew how to push me to get the most out of my abilities. But I’d especially like to thank Keith
Magnussen not only for the suit of Ullman Sails worthy of winning a
championship regatta, but also for having the internal fortitude to put his
personal anguish aside and carry on with the task of winning a North American
Championship. I could not have done this
without you.
