St Thomas International- Day 3 - Canfield leaves it until the last
by Bob Fisher on 31 Mar 2014
Taylor Canfield (PUR-60) leads out from a start in the IC24 class - St Thomas International Regatta - Day 3 Kim Bryne Photography
http://www.kimbyrnephotography.com/
Sunday’s culmination of the International Regatta was staggeringly exciting; supremacy changed hands with astonishing frequency, notably in the IC-24 class, where local hero, Taylor Canfield left it to the very last to stamp his authority and claim the week’s trophy after twelve grueling races.
The final day saw the 15-boat class involved in four, double windward/leeward races before the final, traditional back-to the club race that saw this fleet head north between Great and Little St. James Islands, rounding the former and then heading through the tricky swirls of Current Cut before the short run into the narrow entrance to the finishing line off the St. Thomas Yacht Club.
The four windward/leewards started well for Canfield and his Team Line Honors crew. They posted two bullets with their close rival, Marco Teixidor with cachondo second on each occasion. Those positions gave the local skipper a four-point lead. The next race saw the lead narrowed when the Puerto Rican skipper won and Canfield was third behind Matthew Christie with No Worries.
Worse was to come for Canfield. In the penultimate race of the series, when Teixidor won again and several new faces appeared on the result sheet as the race leader dropped to an unprecedented sixth! It put him four points behind and only the difficult passage race to come and it seemed that his hopes of victory at his home club was to elude the world match racing champion.
But one must never underestimate the 22-year old skipper and his crew of two girls; Stephanie Roble and Taylor Ladd, and two young men; Natt Clark and Mike Rehe. They realized the chips were down and on the first beat to the Stragglers mark, they concentrated on sailing their rival back down the fleet and then sailed their hearts out. The technique was obvious – Canfield used all his long-acquired local knowledge to move from sixth place while Teixidor was four places further back.
He planned this as the six boats approached the north end of Gt. James Island and he established an inside overlap on four of them in order that further down the course he would be in less adverse current. Matthew Christie’s No Worries was too far clear to catch, but second place was what Canfield sought.
Being inside at the start of Current Cut was Canfield’s master stroke and he drew away from his immediate rivals, looking over his shoulder to see Teixidor’s cachondo was in eighth place. Picking their way into the harbour Team Line Honors crew were met with cheers from the club’s members. It was the last class to complete its racing.
Others already ashore had begun to celebrate, among them Frank Noel from Switzerland whose TP-52 Near Miss posted another two bullets to beat Pieter Vroon’s Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens by nine points after the Dutchman had posted a second and a third to beat Irvine Laidlaw’s Highland Fling XII by seven in the Caribbean Sailing Association’s (CSA) Group 0.
In CSA Group 1, The Melges 24 Boogaloo of Morgan Dale fell from grace on the longer courses and dropped from first to third when the Melges 32 Lazy Dog scored two victories to take second place overall to Jaime Torres’ similar 32, Smile and Wave, which was second in both races.
John Holmberg and Teri McKenna swept the board in the Beach Cat class with their Nacra 17 Flight Risk. These Olympic hopefuls had no difficulty of disposing of any of their assorted opposition. Paul Stoeken’s Hobie 16, Island Sel, was second and Mark Chong’s Nacra 20, Blame it on the Rhea, third.
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