CSU-Channel Islands leads Harbor Cup Day 1, Kicking in Cat 37 fleet

by Rich Roberts on 11 Mar 2012 Cal State University Channel Islands has been a constant presence in the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup/Cal Maritime Invitational Intercollegiate Regatta over the five years of the event, but seldom as dominant as it was on the opening day Friday.

The Dolphins from Camarillo just up the coast scored first and second places with a crew of four boys and three girls in the 10-boat fleet for a three-point lead over defending champion Cal Maritime's Keelhaulers from Vallejo, who had a remarkable day themselves.

The teams are sailing rugged Catalina 37s out of Los Angeles Yacht Club on an ocean course between the harbor entrance and Point Fermin.The Port of Los Angeles is the regatta sponsor,Los Angeles YC is the organizing authority and Cal Maritime is the inviting school.

Racing will continue Saturday and Sunday, conditions permitting, to log as many as 10 races starting at 11:30 a.m. each day.

Cal Maritime started the day well enough, loving the 10 to 13-knot southwest breeze---modestly typical for the course---and leading Channel Islands through the finish line by 38 seconds on the two-lap, mile-long windward-leeward course.

Then as Channel Islands ran off with the three-lap second race, the Keelhaulers were running third when their spinnaker took a flyer rounding the first weather mark.

'We lost the sheet and it came back down,' skipper Matthew Van Rensselaer said with a shrug. 'We managed to get it back up, but…'---but then they were next to last.

Nevertheless, they kept plugging away and wound up fifth to stay competitive with Channel Islands, which won the race by 1 minute 27 seconds.

It was a coed team effort by the Dolphins, whose crew is Greg Dair, skipper-helmsman; Andrew Healy, jib trim; Cameron DeMaranville, bow; Hayley Bracken, pit; Sierra Marangola, mast; Jeffrey Tedmori, main trim, and Lexi Gaddis, jib.

'We had two good starts and just tried to keep it simple and easy,' Dair said.

Most important, they played the favored right side of the course for strong approaches to the windward mark. Their one stumble came on the last upwind leg when Maine Maritime closed in from the opposite tack.

'We had a bit of a snafu when our jib sheet got caught up,' Dair said. 'We had to do a couple of extra tracks to get it clear.'

Stan Honey, director of technology for the 34th America's Cup at San Francisco next year, will be the featured speaker for a regatta dinner Saturday night. Honey, co-founder of Sportvision Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., was America's Rolex Yachtsman of the Year for 2010 after navigating the trimaran Groupama 3 to a Jules Verne Trophy global record. Relevant to mainstream sports fans, his company Sportvision also developed the electronic yellow first-down line for football on television.

Standings
(after 2 of 10 races; no discards)

1. CSU Channel Islands, 2-1, 3 points.
2. Cal Maritime, 1-5, 6.
3. SUNY Maritime, 5-2, 7.
4. USC, 6-3, 9.
5. Massachusetts Maritime, 7-4, 11.
6. U. of Michigan, 3-9, 12.
7. U.S. Naval Academy, 4-8, 12.
8. Maine Maritime, 9-6, 15.
9. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 8-7, 15.
10. Cal Berkeley, 10-10, 20.

Event website

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