Maine Maritime Academy drives through rolling waves on way to 2nd Harbor Cup championship Sunday

March 15, 2009

Port of L.A. Harbor Cup is a Maine event again

SAN PEDRO, Calif.---Every time the engraver thought it was safe to carve a new name on the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup Perpetual Trophy Sunday, word came from the water, "Not so fast."

Or so it seemed as the title contenders in the second annual intercollegiate big boat regatta struggled for consistency before Maine Maritime Academy settled down to successfully defend its 2008 championship against seven intercollegiate rivals, four of whom had their shots at one time or another.

No one was immune to the convoluted conditions that marked the event that was otherwise efficiently organized by California Maritime Academy and hosted by the Los Angeles Yacht Club, testing all teams to their limits.

"Everyone was up and down," Maine skipper Matthew Bourque said before his crew dunked him at the dock. "The current, the waves, the lack of breeze . . . you get shaken by it all and have to take a deep breath and regroup."

Four different boats won Sunday's races. Chapman University from Orange County led by three points starting the last four of eight races and immediately finished eighth and seventh before winning the next to last race, too late to save anything but pride.

USC and Cal Maritime---the latter looking to climb back from losing a protest Saturday night---also had their moments and came close, six points behind Maine, but mixed wins with seventh-place finishes.

"Hurricane Gulch"? Check the GPS. The wimpy winds came not from southwest past the west end of Santa Catalina Island 22 miles offshore but from the east side, which happens just enough to strain sailors' souls. Winds varied from 3 to 7 knots as they swung from 120 southeast compass degrees to 190 by the end of the day. Wind gauges didn't touch double digits either day---although Friday's practice day was wonderful.

Maine and the remarkable newbies from Cal State U. Channel Islands handled it best, which is why they wound up first and third. USC held on to second over Channel Islands by a tiebreaker, two wins to one.

When the first start of the day fell apart on a subtle last-minute wind shift, Maine alertly tacked to port and ran away with the race with a 100-yard lead before most of the fleet left the line.

But Maine and two others jumped the next start, although Bourque and tactician T.J. Scott rallied the crew to rally for fifth, and they held steady with a third and a second to close out the victory, leaving the engraver nothing to do.

Bourque, a 22-year-old junior from East Sandwich, Mass., worked the pit in last year's win, which helped to acquaint him with the Catalina 37s chartered from the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation. The team plans to return to defend in 2010.