Gaudio is no lightweight in the Cal 20 Class

by Sail-World on 14 Jul 2008
Any competent sailor can make a hot boat go fast, but Mark Gaudio's affinity for old, slow boats is becoming the stuff of West Coast legend.

The 51-year-old Newport Beach institutional bonds trader completed a triple crown of sorts Sunday with a strong finish in big winds to win the 47th Cal 20 Class Championship, hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. It was his third class title in the past year following similar successes in Lido 14s and Naples Sabots---neither known for speed---and now he is the Cal 20s' first four-time champion, all four in the last eight years.

'I feel pretty good about that,' he said. 'This is a tough class.'

He felt especially good about winning in winds 12 knots building to 16 through the afternoon. He didn't relish sailing with a combined crew weight of a mere 450 pounds to ballast the boat among himself, crew Erik Heim, 27, and the hastily recruited Brian Bissel, 28.

'We're very light,' he said. 'The other top guys are [a total of] 550 or more. We sailed well for a windy regatta.'

Bissel, it turns out, is no slouch. He's a former J/24 world champion who grew up in Newport Beach and just returned home this summer after living in Annapolis for 10 years. Gaudio grabbed him off the dock before casting off Saturday morning.

They won the first and last races of the weekend but had their worst two finishes---a fourth and a fifth among 23 boats---before running away to win the last, windiest race for a final 13-point spread over runnerup Chris Raab, the 2005 champion. Two-time winner Mark Golison of Long Beach was another point back.

Golison erased Gaudio's overnight three-point lead by holding off Raab by two boat lengths to win Sunday's first race, but then his luck blew away with a 12th and eighth in the last two races.

Of the first stumble, crew member Steve Flam said they started well going left, but initially were blocked from tacking to the favored right side of the course and then could only follow the leaders into a header that turned the fleet into a parade in pounding seas of three to four feet.

'We got caught on the wrong side of that,' Flam said.

Otherwise, Golison said, 'We sailed well for a windy regatta. We're happy, but this boat hasn't been stiffened up like a lot of them. We could feel it working when it got rough.'

Raab, sailing with a crew of Kenny Dair and Ernie Richau---the latter just back from navigating Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 maxi sled to a record time in the Tahiti Race, started the weekend off -speed with a ninth but was 2-1-5 on Sunday.

Dair said, 'The first race we didn't have things set up right for the wind---and we hiked harder today. We decided we wanted it.'

Richau said the biggest difference between this and the Tahiti Race was that 'we saw some other boats. That was nice.'

Otherwise, he said, 'It's three or four hours of intense sailing instead of 11 days of being a little more relaxed.'

Gaudio credited Latham Bell, who usually crews for him, with preparing his boat for the event. Bell couldn't race because of a personal commitment but plastered an enlarged mug shot of himself on the bulkhead for inspiration.

'That definitely helped,' Gaudio said. 'Everybody remarked on it.'

After losing his lead to Golison in the first race, Gaudio wanted to change his older light-air headsail to a new one but learned that rules required any sails used to be carried on the boat.

'So it was forget the new jib and the fact that we're too light, we'll just go kick their butts,' he said, laughing.

Top finishers

GOLD FLEET

1. Mark Gaudio/Erik Heim, Jeff Keenon, Bahia Corinthian YC, 1-2-2-3-4-5-1, 18 points.
2. Chris Raab/Kenny Dair, Ernie Richau, ABYC, 9-4-3-7-2-1-5, 31.
3. Mark Golison/Steve Flam, Jennifer Flam, Alamitos Bay YC, 2-1-4-4-1-12-8, 32.
4. Doug McLean/Stacie McLean, Randy Smith, ABYC, 10-3-7-2-5-6-3, 36.
5. Chuck Clay/Geordy Hershmann/Kate Wall, ABYC, 5-6-1-1-8-8-9, 38.

SILVER FLEET

1. Robin Durnin/Shawn Durnin, ABYC, 1-1-1-1-1-1-DNC, 18.
2. Lee Smith/Paul Pierce, ABYC, 3-3-3-3-5-2-1, 20.
3. Tom Mendenhall/ Daniel Mendenhall, ABYC, 7-7-2-2-2-4-3, 27
4. Cathy Black-Smith/Todd Smith, ABYC, 5-4-4-4-3-5-2, 27.

Complete results click here

Event sponsors were Ullman Sails, Kaenon, Kelly Marine, Macson Printing and Lithography, Sun Solutions and Sailing Anarchy.