Linda Elias Memorial Women’s One-Design Challenge – Consistency pays

by Rick Roberts on 18 Oct 2010 Linda Elias Memorial Women’s One-Design Challenge this year saw that consistency was the winning formula for Colleen Cooke and her team from Southwestern Yacht Club on Sunday, an event sponsored by the Long Beach/Los Angeles Women’s Sailing Association and hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club.

Leading by nine points after Saturday’s racing, Cooke and her team focused not on who they had to beat on Sunday but keeping mistakes to a minimum. 'I have a lot of confidence in the team,' Cooke said, 'and I had a lot of confidence coming to the event because of the team. We work well together but knew that even with our lead at the end of the first day we still had a long way to go.'

In 2008, Cooke and her team also held the lead at the end of the first day, but lost the lead and the event by the end of the second day.

'Today [Sunday] we went out very early to practice,' Cooke said, 'keeping our focus from yesterday. The first race we got a good start away from the pin end where there was a lot going on. In the next race, we wanted to stay clean so I told my bow person to keep us from going over early. But it was the age-old problem of being too conservative and we didn’t do too well [finishing eighth].

'We recognized that we couldn’t do that for the third race so we were more aggressive, winning the pin and finishing near the top [third]. This is a terrific team with lots of talent and we have an excellent tactician in Kris Zillmann. She was rock solid.'

Above, Cooke referred to 'a lot going on' at the pin end at the start of the first race Sunday. She was referring to an incident involving the Cal Yacht Club team when just after the start, their lower starboard lifeline let go, dumping six of their crew, unceremoniously, into the water. No one was injured but certainly cold water had been poured on their hopes for a top finish in the race as they pulled the boat up into irons and safely retrieved everyone.

CYC team member Monica Skipwith described the incident. 'I think I was the first one off the boat' Skipwith said. 'It happened so fast. We had just started, I yelled ‘hike, hike, hike hard’ when suddenly we were all in the water swimming. We really didn’t know what happened at first but realized the lower lifeline let go. The rest of the crew on the boat got us onboard quickly and we received lots of warm clothes from regatta support and spectator boats.'

Teammate Michelle Parker-Ondrey said, 'I heard someone say ‘hike hard’ and then there was a loud ‘pop’ and suddenly we were all in the water.'

Team captain Mary Stuyvesant was on the bow at the time. 'Everyone reacted very well and we got our sails down and brought the crew back onboard at the transom.'

The team filed a request for redress for the incident, which was granted by the protest committee giving them a fourth place overall for the regatta. Redress was also filed and granted for the Team Sailing Chicks from Long Beach/Los Angeles Women’s Sailing Association for rendering assistance to the Cal Yacht Club team during the incident, giving them seventh place overall.

'I am so proud of my teammates,' Stuyvesant said. 'Not only did we stay focused after the incident, but we came back and posted a bullet [first place] in the last race!'

Suzanne Spangler and her teammates from Newport Harbor Yacht Club were second in the regatta. Last year, NHYC took first place in the event with Casey Hogan at the helm. This year Spangler finished a respectable second, but said a lack of consistency was their undoing.

'Saturday we finished mid-fleet in the first race,' Spangler said, 'and got a seventh in the second race. Race three we got a first and then a second in the fourth race and felt we were doing well.

'Coming into today we had high hopes. In the first race we had to do a 360 downwind and that hurt us. In the next race we ground down boat 10 [Women’s Sailing Association of Santa Monica Bay] to get first. But the in the last race we had a boat on top of us and couldn’t get clear. We sailed inconsistently and that was the difference. The winner [Cooke] was consistent. I felt we were the fastest boat out there, and it was fun… but we just weren’t in there.'

Third place went to Julie Mitchell and the team from San Diego Yacht Club and fourth place in the regatta went to Jane Hoffner Horst and Team Pilikia from Orange County.

The Women’s One-Design event began 19 years ago and Linda Elias---the namesake for the current regatta---won the championship three of the first five years. Elias passed away in 2003 and the Long Beach/Los Angeles Women’s Sailing Association rededicated the event to her memory.

This year’s winner remembers racing against Elias. 'I sailed against Linda in, I think, 1996,' Cooke said. 'Part of what impressed me was her outstanding team. I remember the ladies and the great teams they brought with them.

'Today my team took responsibility for their own areas. Each member took ownership of their job. They took pride in it and stayed with it. I am so proud of them. Not a weak link in the bunch.'

Final Results
1. Colleen Cooke, SYC, 2-3-3-1-3-8-3, 23 points
2. Suzanne Spangler, NHYC, 4-7-1-2-6-1-7, 28
3. Julie Mitchell, SDYC, 3-4-9-3-4-3-2, 28
4. Barbara Duker, CYC, 5-2-2-5-5(redress granted)-9-1, 29
5. Jane Hoffner Horst, BCYC, 6-1-6-6-5-7-4, 35
6. Karyn Jones, WSA of SMB, 9-5-4-8-2-2-5, 35
7. Kathy Reed, LB/LA WSA, 1-9-8-7-5(redress granted)-4-6, 40
8. Alicia Minana, KHYC, 8-6-7-4-1-5-9, 40
9. Kelly Cantley, LAYC, 7-8-5-9-7-6-8, 50

Complete results and more information are available at www.lbyc.org