International 14 PAC RIM 2010 - Hawaiian wind squalls splash I-14ers

by Andrew Bates on 12 Oct 2010
International 14 Pacific Rim Championships and the Trade Winds picked up for day two of the event, being sailed on Kaneohe Bay.

The winds were a steady 18 kts for most of the day except when the two rain cells passed over the course and the winds picked up to a solid 25 kts with driving rain. Fortunately for the fleet the cells came through before race one and just after race two so the Race Committee was able to wait for the weather to go by before starting.

The racing was very close at the top of fleet. There were numerous position changes and at the end of the day Steve Goodson and Alan Diercks held on with a one-point-lead over Kris Bundy and Fritz Lanzinger team. They had two first place finishes and were moving up the fleet again when they had a mishap on the last leg to the finish and ended up seventh while Goodson and Diercks won the last race.

Paul Galvez and JV Gilmour were consistent scoring 2,3,3. They chased Goodson and Bundy most of the day waiting for them to make a small mistake, but to no avail. They finished with 18 points for the series. Joe Bersch and Herb Cole are in fourth place with 20 points going in to the last day of racing. The top four boats are very close and the PAC RIM series is up for grabs going in the last two races. All of the races count in this regatta so sailing mistake-free is more important than ever.

Ron Boehm and local sailor Brad Cole hit something in the water while flying down the leeward leg and ripped the rudder and rudder mount off the back of their boat while they were in fourth place in race two. Long time San Francisco I-14 sailors Rand Arnold and Gary Grameaux also had a great windward leg in race two only crash on the downwind leg and eventually destroy the back of their boat.

Alan Laflin and Eric Arens finished all the races and survived the wind squalls to finish in ninth place overall.

Top 5 Provisional Results:
1 Goodson/Diercks 14
2 Bundy/Lanzinger 15
3 Galvez/Gilmour 18
4 Bersch/Cole 20
5 Ruetenik/Sorosky 31

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