'Ricks' on roll at Star North American Champs

by Betsy Crowfoot on 20 Aug 2005 Consistent performance has put the San Diego team of Rick Merriman/Rick Peters at the top of the fleet after two days of racing in the Keane 2005 Star Class North American Championship.

‘The Ricks’ lead the 41 contenders with a steady 3-3-4 record, at the California Yacht Club event.

Merriman said the team has relied on ‘pretty good boat speed’ and ‘staying out of trouble,’ but admitted, ‘our starts haven’t been our strong point this week.’

That’s a daunting hurdle considering this competitive fleet is laced with Star Class world champions and Olympic medalists.

It is imperative to get a good start and find your lane early, according to Eric Doyle, 1999 World Champion. Sailing with crew Brian Sharp, Doyle logged his best finish of the regatta today, putting the duo in fifth place with 24 points.

‘You need quite a big lane too,’ Doyle added, ‘with the chop and the puffs and the lulls: a big lane you can maintain for a long period of time because the legs are so long.’

Today’s course was a 10.5 nm windward/leeward course with an average of 12 knots of westerly breeze.

Erik Lidecis hopes those conditions continue. ‘We love this stuff,’ said Lidecis, who took the bullet in Race Three with crew Michael Marzahl. At 6’9’ Lidecis has an inimitable ability to hike his body out, and said, ‘We can keep the boat flatter and keep it in power longer than anybody else.’

Lidecis was breathing a sigh of relief today too, after a mishap yesterday that busted the pole, bent the mast – and knocked them to 12th place in Race Two.

They buried the pole in the water and ‘bent the crap out of the mast,’ Lidecis confessed. ‘It was bent at the bottom, which is really hard to get to. We were going to switch rigs but it would have taken too long to set up.’

He credits Jorg Westerheide -- another competitor – with helping work the kinks out. ‘Jorg sat there and worked with it and we finally got most of it out. We had to tune it in and were a little concerned about the bend,’ Lidecis added. ‘To be honest, I didn’t sleep last night.’

But Lidecis/Marzahl persevered, saying they got a good start and immediately went right, ‘grinding down’ the competition, including George Szabo/Eric Monroe -- who were making a comeback of their own after a disappointing OCS in Race One and ended up taking second place in Race Three.

Lidecis/Marzahl follow frontrunners Merriman/Peters in second place overall with a 1-12-1 record and 14 points; tailed closely by John Dane/Austin Sperry in third, with 14.1.

Races Four and Five will run Saturday August 20 beginning at noon, after which time the crew will throw out their worst finish and the leaderboard is expected to transform. Stay tuned for more exciting action in the Keane 2005 Star Class North American Championship, which concludes Sunday August 21 at California Yacht Club.

Rick Merriman/Rick Peters 3-3-4 10
Eric Lidecis/Michael Marzahl 1-12-1 14
John Dane III/Austin Sperry 5-2-7 14.1
Iain Murray/Andrew Palfram 2-6-9 17
Eric Doyle/Brian Sharp 10-11-3 24


Full results: www.CalYachtClub.com