Winning Long Beach F10 team Flying High

by Flying Tiger media on 30 Jun 2008 It all came down to the final race for the Team on 'Mile High Klub' and their 10 meter Flying Tiger sport boat. The Team from Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, started the day two points behind Eric Schlageter’s team 'Ruckus' from Anacapa Yacht Club.

Mile High Klub needed to win both races on Sunday to win the Pacific Coast Championship and that proved to be a monumental task.

Clear skies and winds already at 14 knots greeted the racers at 11 AM when the teams headed out on the water to prepare for the first race. Seas quickly built to three feet creating challenging conditions for the Teams on these powerful race boats. At 12:15 pm the winds had increased to 16 knots and were gusting to 20 for the start of race number one. After a clean start, Schlageter’s Team Ruckus had the advantage and lead the fleet at the first weather mark with Mile High Klub close behind. The downwind leg was fast and wet with all of the boats finding themselves up on a plane with the bow out and water going everywhere. Smiles all the way around for the crews but things began to get tense as the winds continued to build and the seas grew to four feet and short period chop as they neared the first leeward gate. Team Ruckus went to the left gate marker and Mile High Klub went to the right gate marker.

Team Mile High Klub took advantage of Team Ruckus allowing them to split the course and hiked out with every inch they could manage.

As the boats neared the top of the course on the second lap, Team Mile High Klub were in a position to move into the lead. Team Ruckus was forced to duck below Mile High Klub and for the first time in the race, Mile High Klub was in a position to win. They would have to hold off a hard charging fleet to take the gun at the finish. This is no easy task on these fast sport boats as an increase in wind on the opposite side of the course can cost you several positions.

After rounding the weather mark for the second time and setting their spinnakers, the Flying Tiger fleet came alive as winds continued to build into the mid twenty knot range with big square chop making the trip 'Down the hill' a real sleigh ride.

Mile High Klub managed to hold off Ruckus and take the win to inch one more point closer to winning the Pacific Coast Championship. Only one thing stood in their way…An entire fleet of skilled racers who also wanted to prevail on the final race of the three day event. The owner and helmsman of Mile High Klub took a deep breath and reviewed with their crew what they needed to do in the last race. For the second time in as many races they again had to beat Team Ruckus boat for boat in what amounted to a match race within a fleet race.

As the fleet counted down the minutes, then seconds to the horn marking the start to the final race of the

championship, Team Ruckus and Team Mile High Klub began their dance fighting for position on the start line. Team Ruckus did a fantastic job of getting themselves into what might have been a controlling position at the start. A flapping leach on the mainsail and a little less hiking by the crew prevented Ruckus from pinching off Mile High Klub. It was a drag race with Mile High Klub helmsman Payson Infilese trying everything he could think of to drive over Ruckus and take their breeze. For ten minutes the boats were side by side with neither making distance on the other. Finally, Mile High Klub chose to tack away and head for the mark on port tack leaving Ruckus to sail on up the course on Starboard.
Mile High Klub prevailed in the battle of upwind speed and after a conservative spinnaker set at the weather mark they sailed on to the finish in a tie with Team Ruckus in what can only be described as an amazing day of racing off Long Beach, California.[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]

Everyone who was lucky enough to participate in this year’s event was treated to excellent race committee work and conditions on Saturday and Sunday that were 'Classic Long Beach'. Strong winds, brisk water and sunny skies made for an epic weekend on the water. Many thanks to those competitors like Marc Pinckney who brought their boat all of the way from San Jose and John Paquin who traveled up from Coronado, CA. Philip Infelise gets the 'Distance Award' though coming all of the way from Colorado to sail with his son and claim the Pacific Coast Championship trophy for 2008 which was donated by the distributor of the Flying Tiger, Hiptrader, LLC.

The 2009 event promises to be even bigger with more fleet members and boats being added all of the time. For more information on the Flying Tiger fleet go to: www1.ft10class.info

Final results:
Flying Tiger 10

Place # Owner Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Total
1 33 Philip/Payson Infelise 7 1 2 2 1 1 1 15
2 49 Eric Schlageter 5 2 1 1 2 2 2 15
3 24 John Paquin 4 3 3 3 5 5 3 26
4 10T Tom Hirsh 2 4 5 7 3 3 6 30
5 54 Paul McPherson 3 6 6 4 4 4 4 31
6 19 Neil Senturia 1 5 4 5 6 6 5 32
7 69 Marc Pinckney 6 7 7 8 8 7.2 avg2 7.2 avg2 50.4
8 8T Tim Chin 8 8 10 dnf 6 7 10 dnc 10 dsq 59

The Flying Tiger 10 M (FT10) is a new 10 meters One Design Club Racer designed by Bob Perry, built by Bill Stevens at Hansheng Yachts in Xiamen, China and commercialized by Hiptrader LLC. You can visit www.hiptrader.com for additional information or directly contact them at: Hiptrader, LLC
826 Orange Ave., Suite 612 Coronado, CA 92118 Office (619) 778-8880 Fax (619) 435-5236