Qualifiers begin at Optimist US Nationals

Pensacola, FL (July 23, 2015) – The scheduled start time for the first race of the 4-day 2015 USODA National Championship hosted by Pensacola Yacht Club was postponed for an hour or so with a delay ashore. Early wind then settled in and the course was set.

The first group, the Pink Flight — 93 of the 278 championship competitors — tried to start. All the boats were bunched up at the pin end of the starting line because the wind had shifted left favoring that end. Dozens of the Optis were over the line early forcing a General Recall,

Because the wind had shifted, Principal Race Officer (PRO) Ron Hopkins ordered the pin boat to drop back to change the angle of the starting line relative to the wind. This scenario played out five times till the PRO thought he has hit the last shift.

At this time the black flag was hoisted and that meant that any boat over the starting line at one minute before the start would be ‘black flagged’ and dismissed from that race. The ‘over earlies’ came on in spades. 22 boats got the flag and were dismissed from the first race for that group. And that start was a general recall, too.

Some people said that outgoing tidal currents played a part in pushing the bloats over early. However, Race Chairman Jim Baus said, “An outgoing tide played a role in the recalls, but not much with the good wind velocity on the bay today. The sailors were just being overly aggressive in this first championship race of the regatta.”

Before the next start the sea breeze filled in with a quick, 40º shift to the south and a velocity increase from 7 knots to 15 knots. After a total course reconfiguration, that much delayed ‘Pink’ race finally got off to a clean start, still under a black flag.

The first Pink Flight that had so much trouble starting became a fast blast around the course. Bermudian Tayte Stefaniuk of Smith’s Bermuda took that first race of the USODA National Championship. The Lavender boats started next and Yellow boats followed in good order.

The top three of combined preliminary results of three flights for each group saw Tayte Stefaniuk of Bermuda’s Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club LOOT in first with scores of 1-1-2 and 4 points. Second is Luke Arnone of Mantoloking Yacht Club CERT at 2-2-1 and 5 points. Third is Brice Tone of Sarasota Yacht Club with 2-5-3 and 10 points.

These first races with the fleet divided into thirds decide who will move in the Gold Fleet for the Medal Round and who will go into the Silver Fleet. The top 33% after five races are completed or at the end of racing Friday if they complete more than five will go into the Gold Medal Round. The rest will go into the Silver Fleet.

The 2015 National Championship regatta is a USODA Team Trials Qualifying (TTQ) event. The top 50% of Team Trials eligible Championship Fleet competitors, as defined by the USODA, based on the final results using the total number of boats registered in both the Championship and Green Fleet, are eligible for entry into the 2016 USODA Team Trials.

The top team in the Team Race National Championship LISOT Black will be invited to represent the USA at the Opti Team Cup Berlin in October.

Racing continues on Friday morning with the First warning for the first race of the day scheduled for 10:00 on Pensacola Bay.

Event website – Results

Report by Talbot Wilson.

Background: The USODA Team Race National Championship had 26 teams racing on July 19-21, which was followed by the 81-boat USODA Girls National Championship on Wednesday (July 22). The finale is the boys and girls racing in the 278-boat USODA National Championship on July 23-26.