1998 Planing Boat Regatta -- West Coast Championship

Mission Bay – October 24-25
Douglas Dommermuth
 
The 1998 Planing boat regatta was held in the Pacific Ocean outside of Mission Bay on October 24 and 25.  This regatta was our West Coast Championship this year.  For the two weekends preceding the Planing boat regatta, several FD's spent time tuning their boats in the Mission Bay One Design Invitational and the Coronado Small Boat Regatta.

 In the One Design Invitational, Tim and Diana Bentley gave a clinic on how to sail in  light winds and ocean swell.  Their pole launcher broke, or else they surely would have won the regatta.  Jim Algert ultimately prevailed.  

The Coronado Small Boat Regatta proved to be very exciting with plenty of wind during both days of the regatta.   Hot and dry Santa Anna winds blew in from the desert.   On both days the wind was in excess of 20 knots and it was steady.   A few east coast FD sailors have come out to sail in Coronado, so they know as we do that South Bay in Coronado is a wonderful place to sail FD's.  South Bay is surrounded by San Diego on the east side of the bay and Coronado Island on the west side.   A sea breeze typically blows over Coronado Island and across the race course.  Since the race course is enclosed, wave action is minimal.  Wind blown chop is the normal condition.  Here, in San Diego, we all think that Coronado Island is the  ideal place to sail.  Aside from ideal sailing conditions, it also has many shore side attractions,  including the Hotel Del Coronado, surfing, the San Diego Zoo, Sea  World, and the many friendly people of Southern California.  

Jim Algert is currently exploring having a FD  World Championship at  the Coronado Yacht Club.  Everything is very preliminary at this moment, but the first indications are good.  The club has expressed interest, and Jim is proceeding  with the next steps.  

Doug Dommermuth and Marco Colombo won the Small Boat Regatta.  Brian Nelson and Merlin Green broke a mast as they tried to right their boat having a tacking mishap.  Their mast was weak at the top, and it snapped near the top of spreaders from the weight of the water on the main sail.  Snapping a mast is not too much fun, but things got even worse because Brian lost his car keys during the capsize.   To make matters even worse, Merlin's car keys were in the trunk of Brian's car!   They eventually recovered, and Brian was even able to line up a mast for the Planing Boat Regatta.  After some initial rigging problems on the first day, Brian and Merlin sailed very well on the second day of the Planing Boat Regatta.
 
Don Mierszeski and his wife Tina drove down to participate in the Planing Boat Regatta.  On the way down, they blew out a tire on the trailer.  Since Don and Tina have a new large truck, they were not aware of the blown tire.  They rode on the rim for a several miles before someone waved them down.  Needless to say there was not much left of the rim.  Fortunately, they were able to make it down to San Diego without a spare.  The new bottom of their boat was not damaged, but their cover was covered with oil.  On the way back, they borrowed a spare from Doug Dommermuth, which came in handy because they blew another tire. Please note that if you own a Harbeck trailer, it is very difficult to find spare tires on short notice.  

Greg Cole  and Tim Gorbold flew in to sail.  Greg brought his own sails, and they sailed Doug Dommermuth's wood-decked Mader.  Tim was very glad to get a break from school and the snow that he left behind in New York.  The FD sailors in San Diego were very happy to host their out-of-state guests.  We will make our Planing boat regatta an annual event so that sailors with less desirable climates can get one last fix of FD sailing.  We had good trapeze winds on both days of the regatta.  It was very challenging due to large ocean wells and strong tidal currents.   On the first day, the winds blew from the North, and the shore side of the course was favored.  On the second day, even though the winds came from the South, but the right side was still favored.  One of the closest finishes was the fourth race, which involved Cole and Dommermuth. Dommermuth and Colombo rounded the windward mark slightly ahead of Cole and  Gorbold on the last leg of a downwind finish.  Cole and Gorbold initiated a series of  jibes in the last portion of the race that almost earned them victory.  The race was decided by less than a boat length.  In the last race, Cole and Gorbold got a clean start and cruised into victory. The racing was very close as is evident in the results.  The lead was exchanged back and fourth between the top three boats, and the West Coast Champion was not decided until the last race.  Congratulations go to Greg Cole and Tim Gorbold who are our new West Coast Champions.  Jim Algert and his crew Zack were very consistent and they captured second.   Doug Dommermuth and Marco Colombo were third.  Engraved mugs were awarded to the skippers and crews of first two boats.  The most exciting moments of sailing do not always occur on the race course, and this was especially true after the last race on the return back into the Mission Bay Yacht Club.   At Mission Bay the harbor entrance is enclosed between two jetties.  While we were racing, the tide changed from an incoming to outgoing tide.   The combination of large ocean swells and strong tidal currents led to extremely large waves breaking across the harbor entrance.  As Cole and Gorbold were entering the harbor entrance,  a very large set also came.   Ariadne, their boat, caught a wave and began surfing down the face.  As  described by Tim the top of the wave was breaking above the spreaders.
Ariadne's bow drilled into the bottom of the wave, and both Greg and Tim thought that the boat was lost. Greg and Tim described it as their most frightening experience in all their years of FD sailing.  They will never forget the feeling of nearly pitch poling a FD down the face of a breaking wave.   Somehow they managed to pull out.  Rescue boats that were waiting nearby were quick to respond, but fortunately Greg and Tim made it through unscathed.  We also had a lot of fun off the sailing course.  

On Saturday evening we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant.  This was followed by the SCRABBLE Championship of the Universe at Doug and Joanne Dommermuth's  house.   The final match was a brutal take no prisoners game that involved  Greg and Tim versus Joanne and Doug.  Things looked very bleak for Doug and Joanne toward  the end of the game when Greg and Tim  played a few choice words.  However, daring moves and perhaps a little luck eventually led to a narrow victory for Doug and Joanne.   As a result, we were very pleased to crown the Dommermuth family as our new SCRABBLE Champions of the Universe.   They very graciously accepted two  engraved Scrabble chips to commemorate their victory.

1998 Planing Boat Regatta Boat#     Team            Race 1  Race 2   Race 3   Race 4  Race 5   Total 109   Cole & Gorbold       3/3     1/4      3/7      2/9     1/10     10  87   Algert & Zack        1/1     2/3      2/5      4/9     2/11     11 153   Dommermuth & Colombo 2/2     4/6      1/7      1/8     5/13     13 143   Ken & Mierzeski      4/4     3/7      5/12     3/15    4/19     19  85   Nelson & Green       6/6     DNS/13   DNS/20   5/25    3/28     28  81   Bentley & Bentley    5/5     5/10     4/14     DNS/21  DNS/28   28