Lipton Cup Challengeo opens in San Diego

by SDYC on 31 Oct 2015 Day one of the 2015 Lipton Cup opened in San Diego Bay with competitors from yacht clubs across the US excited to be racing in the beautiful weather. The Race Committee was able to get the first race underway after a one hour postponement with consistent winds out of the Northwest at five - ten knots. St. Francis Yacht Club leaped to an early lead with excellent boat speed. They were able to cruise across the finish line for the Race one win.

Race two shook things up as San Diego Yacht Club took first place, while New York Yacht Club made major improvements from 10th in the first race to third in the second. Newport Harbor Yacht Club was unable to maintain their strong fourth place from the first race as they fell back to 12th in the second.

The winds increased for Race three, gusting at 12-15 knots and held steady the rest of the day. San Diego built on their success with a second win. Larchmont jumped into the game with a second place finish, improving from their previous seven and four, while St. Francis finished strong again with a third place. California Yacht Club showed their skills in Race four by taking the lead at the first windward mark rounding and keeping it through the finish. San Francisco jumped up to second from the back of the fleet in the first three races and San Diego Yacht Club fell to third. With the wind still consistent, the Race Committee was able to get a final fifth race in to seal off a very successful first day. San Francisco made moves to finish the day off with a first. St. Francis was able to end the day with another solid second and New York Yacht Club came back up to third. Teams were competitive and starts were aggressive throughout the day.

Erik Rogers and the dock support crew worked well to keep the rotations quick. Teams were off one boat and on to the next in the rotation in about six minutes per rotation.

St. Francis currently sits in first with 17 points, followed by San Diego with 18 points and Larchmont in third with 26 points. The rest of the fleet is tight, all within a few points of one another. It will be exciting to see who moves around tomorrow!

Thank you to regatta partner Tesla Motors who provided test drives of the Model S to competitors and club members all day at the club and around Point Loma, and will be here throughout the weekend. And special thanks to supporting JK3 Yachts and McCarthy Holthus LLP.

Results:

J/105

Place	#	Boat Name	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total
1	StF	St Francis	Chris Raab	1	2	3	9	2				17
2	SD	San Diego	Tyler Sinks	5	1	1	3	8				18
3	LAR	Larchmont	Danny Pletsch	7	4	2	6	7				26
4	NY	New York	Brian Keane	10	3	6	8	3				30
5	LB	Long Beach	Dustin Durant	2	7	4	7	11				31
6	SF	San Francisco	Jack Barton	12	9	9	2	1				33
7	CAL	California	Bob Little	8	8	7	1	10				34
8	NH	Newport Harbor	Jon Pinckney	4	12	8	5	6				35
9	ANN	Annapolis	Peter McChesney	3	5	12	12	5				37
10	COR	Coronado	Patrick Powell	6	11	5	4	12				38
11	SW	Southwestern	Shala Youngerman	9	6	11	10	9				45
12	CHI	Chicago	Steve Knoop	11	10	10	11	4				46