Eight F18s from Southern California competed in the San Diego NOOD Regatta the weekend of March 16-17. Under the warm sun after many weeks of intermittent rain it was a nice change for the locals. All the F18s launched from the US Navy’s Fiddler’s Cove Marina with an easy ten minute sail to the race course on the best place to sail in San Diego – South Bay. This year the NOOD regatta divided the classes assigned to South Bay onto two different courses which was wonderful. The F18 were racing with only two other classes (I14 and 29er) on the same course so there was minimal waiting for starts (other than waiting for wind) and we maximized the number of races.
Due to the early start at 11:30 on Saturday there was light wind 7-8 kts for the first two races. The fleet was extremely competitive with boats arriving at all the marks close together with tight mark roundings. There were many changes of positions within the fleet as the teams tried to figure out the best strategies for the lighter wind. It quickly became evident that the left side of the course up wind was to place to go and you wanted to go far right downwind to be in stronger breeze. Out of the gate the team of James Orkins and Michael Risoer was dominating the fleet with superior boat speed and good strategy. Right at the end of the second race there was a 50 degree wind shift to the right as the standard sea breeze filled in. The final two races on Saturday saw ideal 12-15 kts of wind kick in. These were awesome races with very tight competition between the four boats with deck sweeper mainsails. Once we were in double trapping conditions the conventional mainsail boats could not keep up. At the end of Saturday James/Michael were clearly ahead with 1-1-4-1 finishes and 5 points. They were followed by Jeff Newsome/Matthieu Marfaing with 9 points. Then came Scott Miller/Hailey Miller and Steve Stroebel/Ben Brown both with 16 points.
Sunday brought a new day with forecast of light winds. There was a one hour postponement for the wind to fill in which happened at 12:30. The fleet was surprised that when the wind filled in it was a strong 12-14 kts out of the WSW. We had three more very competitive races in good breeze with the wind starting to slacken in the third race. James/Michael continued their dominance with three bullets and Jeff/Matthieu held onto second place. Brandon Wallace/Marc Umemoto had a good Sunday to move into third place.
South San Diego Bay once again showed that it is the premier location for racing in San Diego and why it has been selected as the venue for the 2020 F18 Americas Championship.
