The Multi hull scene here in Southern California is heating up with twenty-nine multihulls battling it out in six races over the past weekend at MBYC. Featuring Nacra 20s, F18s, and A Cats, the F18 class turned out to be the biggest fleet with extremely tight racing with several boats finishing just seconds apart and the top 5 boats mixing it up for first place.
Both days had similar conditions with the marine layer blanketing over in the early morning. As the curtain burned off, the fun switch turned on, resulting in some exciting and tight racing conditions. With WNW 10-13 knots and lumpy swell, sailors had to work hard on transitions around the course. Everyone had to thread the needle to avoid other fleets racing or patches of sea kelp, though some weren’t so fortunate and had to drag a “sea anchor” around.
This year’s event was held just after the Olympics where athletes faced gnarly conditions in Rio. It was inspiring for all to see the Argentinian Skipper, Santiago Lang, 54 years old, who lost part of a lung to cancer last year, team up with Cecilla Carranza Saroli to take home the Gold at the Olympics.
San Diego’s Scott Miller, who at 61 years old has been racing cats since 1979, showed the fleet how it’s done with consistent results throughout the event. Scott and his teammate, Bernardo Serrano, turned it on for Sunday’s race with a 2,2,1 finish to take home the Gold. Scott noted that “the conditions were nice, although the racing was quirky because there were shifts, kelp, and some wave action for surfing. Overall there was very close racing across the F18 class.”
Just like a fighter piolet in an F18, David Meacock found the ejection button during race 4, sending him for a swim with the mainsheet still in hand. Meacock said he “wasn’t sure what happened, one second I’m sawing away at the mainsheet, next, I’m getting dragged behind the boat like a Tuna lure.” Luckily, they managed to get back underway with a strong downwind game, rounding the top mark deep but leading the race at the leeward mark.
Most professional sports are solely played and managed by millionaires and owned by billionaires and there’s little room for amateurs to compete against the pros. Yet in sailing, anyone can crew on a boat and potentially compete against the top of the sport as an amateur. The MBYC cat fleet is alive and well and sailors; Steve Stroebel, Matt Morris, Jeffrey Newsome, Travis Vetter, and Bryan Paine are looking forward to sailing in the F18 Nationals September 19th-23rd.
Photos courtesy of: Melody Le Patourel
Regatta write up by: Bryan Paine