2016 Star District 6 Championship – Overall report

by Paul Cayard on 5 Sep 2016 Danny and I came up to Vancouver to race against the best of the northwest on Labor Day weekend. Danny recently moved to Seattle, we thought we would join in the racing up here in beautiful Vancouver BC, home of Star World Champion Ross McDonnald. Ross, no longer sailing the Star, was mountain biking in Whistler, this weekend.

15 Stars competed in the 2016 District 6 Championship. Saturday got off to a slow start with two races being abandoned for lack of wind. Finally around 1300, a light westerly filled in which gave us three good races in five - seven knots of wind and flat seas.

In the first race, Danny and I got a bad start and struggled the rest of the way to get seventh. In the second race after a great start by Danny, we were leading at the first leeward mark only to hit is and make a 360 degree penalty turn and finish third. Finally in the last race, Danny put it all together to lead wire to wire and take the win.

So after day one we were in second place with a score of eleven to the eight points that Allen Cullen and Dave Martin (CAN) put together. His son, Rob Cullen, sailed very well and would have been tied with his father for the lead, but was OCS in the third race where he finished second. The is to be a discard one more than three races are completed so Rob would come back to feature.

On Sunday the westerly wind filled in at 10:30 so racing got underway on time at 11:00 and we were able to get four races in. It was the postcard kind of day for Vancouver. Sunny and the tall mountains surrounding English Bay were prominently on display. The racing was tight and the south shore was favored most of the time for current. Rob Cullen (CAN) with Jamie Hynes up front sailed very well today to get scores of one, six, one, two and finish with 16 points. Danny (USA) and I had mixed results of two, seven, three, five to finish up second overall. Derek De Couteau (USA) and Jamie Stewart finished third.

I am off to Lake Garda tomorrow to train with Carlo Alberini and his Team Calvi Networks in preparation for the J70 World Championship later this month at St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.