ICSA Vanguard Singlehanded National Championships

by Regatta Press, edited by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 5 Nov 2007 35 sailors from around the country arrived in Seattle to sunny clear skies and crisp fall temps. Highs reached the low 50's by the afternoon, but the wind was never strong enough to get a race started. Sailors were postponed on shore until 3:30 when a three to five knot southerly finally filled. Once everyone made it to the course, the wind had died off and the RC never got the chance to start a race.

After a day of no wind on Friday, sailors started the day at 10:00 with an 8-10 knot southerly. As the clouds cleared, the wind built to around 12-15 knots with some bigger puffs for most of the day before fading back down to around eight knots for the final races in both fleets.

Temps reached the upper 50's. All courses were W-4's with a leeward gate and downwind finish. The breeze filled in a little harder on Sunday and races were sailed in an eight to 12 knot northerly under partly sunny skies.

Yale's Thomas Barrows got off to a choppy start in the 18-race series, but once he settled in, he stayed in the top five in every race. His consistency allowed him to claim the ICSA/Vanguard Men's Singlehanded National Championship title and the Glen S. Foster Trophy. He won the regatta with 66 points. Reed Johnson of B.C. finished second with 75 points and never finished out of the top 8 throughout the series.

Mitch Hall of University of South Florida was right in the hunt, with scores similar to Johnson's until the final two races, in which he added 17 points to his score while the two competitors ahead of him added 5 points or less to their scores.

As in the men's regatta, three women stole the show. Krysta Rohde of Coast Guard, with six bullets in 17 races was the clear winner ICSA/Vanguard Women's Singlehanded National Championship competition for the Janet Lutz Trophy. Not far off Rohde's pace were Jane Macky of Yale and ODU's Katrina Williams. Each of the three top competitors had multiple bullets and multiple top three races. Like Johnson in the men's division, Williams fell out of the running for the lead in the final two races of the series.

Pro Jay Renehan and the race committee who did a great job getting races off. Judges Charles Macauley, Wayne Balsiger, Tom Barrett, Mike Karas, and Zak Malbin, Wayne Balsiger, Lindsay Bergan, Dalton Dergan and Jen Glass kept everyone honest on the water. There was one protest on Saturday, which resulted in a DSQ and one redress granted.

The regatta sponsors were Vanguard Sailboats, Pentax, GTS Photos, Gill, Cliff Bar, North Sails of Seattle, Kvichak Marine, Fisheries Supplies, Sail Sand Point, and a number of generous volunteers.