Loring consolidates lead - Sunfish Worlds

by Event Media on 5 Oct 2006 The Charleston wind gods nearly took a powder today as 96 Sunfish sailors waited out on the harbor for two and a half hours before a light southeasterly breeze finally filled in and the competition ensued.

The race committee staged two five-leg, windward-leeward contests today, the first with a fierce two-knot ebb moving across the course, and the next one with a burgeoning flood tide that caused the fleet to get unusually spread out, with many sailors finding it difficult to lay the weather mark.

With the breeze ranging between 6 and 10 knots all day, and relatively flat water for most of the afternoon, the conditions on the racecourse were none-the-less demanding. Not too surprisingly, it turned out to be a very good day for regatta leader David Loring, who consolidated his spot at the top of the leaderboard by posting two top-three finishes (2nd and 3rd). Back on shore after the races, he looked spent but elated.

'This was really my best day by far,' said Loring. 'I mean getting two bullets on the first day was great, but I sailed really conservatively today, and I never would have thought I’d finish with a two and three using that kind of approach. I mean, I really don’t deserve those finishes if you consider how I sailed. I was super cautious because of the Rule 42 violation that I got yesterday. I’ve never sat so still in a boat before, and because of that I was sailing the boat very flat. That’s really not my style.'

Loring’s elation was due to the fact that he now sits with a 28-point margin over his closest competition—David Mendelblatt of St. Petersburg, Fla. Loring has 15 points, and Mendelblatt has 43. If the race committee can accomplish seven races by the end of the event on Friday, then the competitors will have the option to throw out their worst race. In Loring’s case, that’s a sixth place. For Mendelblatt, that would be an 18th that he picked up during Tuesday’s first race.

Despite Loring’s good fortune on the water, the day really belonged to Mendelblatt. The 36-year-old opthamologist led each of the day’s races, exhibiting superior speed and good tactics. 'I can be fast in this stuff,' he said immediately after Race No. 6, 'and if I sail smart, I usually do well. I think I had pretty good tactics today. I just tried to get the boat moving, and once I had clear air, I was able to use my speed.'

After one general recall at the start of today’s first race, the committed raised the 'Z' flag, meaning that any boats over the line early would incur a 20% penalty, which six sailors did. After the race started, Mendelblatt, Loring, and Bob Findlay moved out ahead of the other boats by playing the left hand side of the course while the majority of the competitors went well to the right. 'I knew most of the sailors were going to go right,' explained Loring later. 'I’m sure most everyone was using logic from yesterday’s conditions, but today was different.' This trio was significantly ahead of the pack at the first weather mark, so much so that it took a full 18 minutes for all 96 sailors to round the mark.

As the fleet made its way around the course, the ebb tide slowed and the breeze alternately moderated down from 10 to less than 6 knots at times. Loring attempted to engage Mendelblatt in a tacking duel on the second beat, but the Floridian had enough of a speed edge that he kept himself safely in front, executing only a few conservative tacks to cover Loring. At the finish, Mendelblatt garnered the gun, followed by Loring, and then New Zealander Steve Rickerby.

The day’s second race started just after the flood tide began to show itself. With the tide and wind aligned most of the course was very flat, but there were occasional patches of chop. Again, Mendelblatt took the lead, sailing up the middle left of the course. He looked very intent at the helm. 'I was just trying to keep the boat moving,' he said later. He rounded the first weather mark with a small lead over Greg Gust, a Sunfish veteran from Dallas, Texas, with Peter Stanton of the U.S. Virgin Islands in close pursuit. Four boats further back, David Loring was formulating his strategy to begin passing boats.

Mendelblatt extended his lead considerably by rounding the top mark first and using the flood tide to sweep him downwind while his nearest competitors struggled against the tide before rounding the mark. Two legs later, as the lead boats again approached the weather mark, Mendelblatt held a 200-yard lead over Gust. Loring had made his move earlier on that beat and was then in third place, followed by Carlos Abisambra from Columbia and Hugolino Colmenares of Venezuela.

As the breeze diminished and the flood tide built, the race committee mercifully shortened the last leg, setting the finish line about a half mile up from the leeward marks, and Mendelblatt clinched his second victory in convincing fashion. Immediately after that race he was happy, but reserved. It will be hard for him to overcome the mid-teen finishes he posted in Races 3 and 4, and to beat his Charleston-based rival—Loring—it will take particularly bad performance on Loring’s part. As for Loring’s outlook, he’s wary. He knows he needs just one more solid race and the overall victory will be his. 'I’ll be keeping an eye on several guys tomorrow, you can be sure of that,' said Loring before heading home to crunch the numbers and find out exactly how well he needs to do to win. The racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow at 11:30.

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