Tough day at the office - Acura Ullman LBRW Day 2

by Rich Roberts on 29 Jun 2008 Rough seas, 20 knots of breeze, two injured sailors, two or three people overboard, one busted rudder, a dozen protests at the end of the day and a bunch of new class leaders---when Acura presented Day 2 of Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week Saturday, there was never a dull moment.

Depending on how many of the thousand or so sailors on 146 boats are ready, racing will continue Sunday starting at noon, conditions permitting.

Following yesterday's single-digit wind under a gray marine layer, the 19 fleets were greeted by blue skies and whitecaps generated by 12 knots of southwest sea breeze building to as high as 22 by day's end.

The conditions took their toll but also paid off for those who reveled in the extremes to fight their way to the top---among them the diminutive Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the talk radio hostess from Santa Barbara who followed Thursday's 7-3 finishes with a 1-2-1 and whose J/100, Perfect, now leads the Sportboat class by four points.

'We're glad it was a ripping day,' she said. 'My boat loves wind.'

Less delighted with the afternoon were Steve Beck, who needed 21 stitches in his lower left leg after crashing through a window on Ray Godwin's Farr 40, Temptress, as Godwin had to wheel the boat violently to avoid a collision with Radical Departure, which was disqualified in a protest hearing.

Unfortunately, Temptress, in second place after Thursday, had to drop out of the next two races, costing it any chance of winning.

'This isn't the way I wanted to get my name in print,' Beck said after returning from getting sewn up at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

Todd Singleton, mastman on one of Long Beach YC's chartered Catalina 37s, needed a few stitches after gashing his scalp while ducking under the boom on the bouncing boat. He was offloaded and the boat sailed the remaining races.

The only other known serious injury was to Grace O'Malley---not a live person but the J/105 sailed by Alice Leahey of California YC. She suffered a broken rudder at the windward mark and was unable to finish the last race.

An unidentified crew member was flipped off Tim Chin's Flying Tiger 10, Abacus, in a sudden round-up at the windward mark on Bravo course. He was not wearing a life jacket but was recovered within a couple of minutes by a mark boat and sailed the rest of the day.

Less casual was the rescue of another crew member, also anonymous, who slipped off Mark Stratton's Beneteau 40.7, Lugano, as it twisted through the leeward gate on the big-boat Alpha course. As other boats continued to pass through on both sides and the fast and massive Fast 70s bore down under full-blown spinnakers, the man dodged traffic as best he could until a race committee mark boat plucked him out.

As for pure sailing, former Long Beach sailor Jeremy Davidson, now of San Diego, drove Rick Goebel's J/105 into first place in the largest class while the owner is in Europe. The boat Sanity won the first two races of the day before scrambling for a fourth place that left it with a three-point lead among 14 boats.

'We were going really fast,' Davidson said. 'We might have won the last race, too, but we nailed the pin end at the start and then got stuck under several other boats and couldn't tack to the [favored] right side of the course.'

What pleased him, though, was that 'we have two people on board that have never sailed on a J/105 before.'

Class leaders (After 5 of 7 races)
FARR 40 (9 boats)---Piranha, David Voss, California YC, 2-1-4-1-1, 9 points.
CATALINA 37 (10)---Team ABYC, Chuck Clay, Alamitos Bay YC, 4-2-3-1-3, 13.
J/80 (6)---Tiamo, Glenn Darden, Fort Worth Boat Club, 1-3-1-1-1, 7.
J/105 (14)---Sanity, Jeremy Davidson, San Diego YC, 3-1-1-4, 9 (Race #2 abandoned).
MELGES 24 (4)---Where's Bob, Robert Tennant, Treasure Island SC, 1-1-1-1-1, 5.
SCHOCK 35 (5)---JoAnn, Steve Murphy, Seal Beach YC, 1-4-2-1-2, 10.
FAST 70 (5)--- Peligroso, Mike Campbell, Long Beach YC, and Dale Williams, St. Francis YC, 1-2-2-1-1, 7.
FAST 50 (7)---Chayah (1D48), Oscar Krinsky/Chris Redman, Alamitos Bay YC, 1-1-3-2-3, 10.
FAST 40 (5)---Stark Raving Mad (J/125), Jim Madden, Newport Harbor YC, 2-1-2-1-1, 7.
SPORTBOAT (9)---Perfect (J/100), Laura Schlessinger, Santa Barbara YC, 7-3-1-2-1, 14.
J/120 (8)---Caper, John Laun, San Diego YC, 1-1-1, 3.
FLYING TIGER 10 (8)---Ruckus, Eric Schlageter, Anacapa YC, 5-2-1-1-2, 11.
MUMM 30 (5)---Huckleberry 2, Jim Murrell, King Harbor YC, 3-3-1-1-2, 10.
CAL 25 (6)---One Time, Art and Scott Melendres, Long Beach YC, 2-3-1-1-1, 9.
OPEN 5.70 (7)---Havic, Rich and Tony Festa, South Coast YC, 1-3-1-1-1, 7.
J/29 (6)---Cherry Bomb, Steve Aichele, Seal Beach YC, 2-4-1-3-1, 11.
PHRF-4 (11)---Rival (J/35), Dick Velthoen/Paul Defrietas, Ventura YC, 4-3-1-3-1, 12.
PHRF-5 (9)---Medusa (Viper 640), John Riddell, Arizona YC, 1-1-1-1-1, 5.
RANDOM LEG (4)---T-N-T, Wes Selby, American Legion YC, 1-1, 2.

Complete results http://www.lbrw.org

Ullman Sails Inshore Championship standings www.ullmansails.com

Ullman Sails is the title sponsor. ACURA is the presenting sponsor. Other supporters are West Marine, the City of Long Beach Recreation and Marine Dept., Gladstone's Long Beach, the 5.70 Open class in association with Nauteek Tactical Electronics, True Wind products, Mount Gary Rum, J/Boats, Atlantis Weather Gear, Duffy Electric Boats and DISC Spine & Sports Center.