Two Gates Pursuit Race: Lane’s Medicine Man pulls off three-peat win in 2018 season kick-off race
by Rick Roberts 16 Jan 2018 20:36 PST
Bob Lane and his Andrews 63, Medicine Man won the Two Gates Pursuit Race © Rick Roberts
Bob Lane and his Andrews 63, Medicine Man, has now won the Long Beach Yacht Club's first-of-the-year Two Gates Pursuit Race three times in a row after crossing the finish line, January 7, ahead of 24 other boats.
Included in Lane's team were Lisa Meier, Keith Ives, Katie Gorman, Bob Greb, Jeff Ives and John Busch.
"The wind was good," said Lane, "and the race committee did a good job. Lisa did a great job and Keith was phenomenal."
In performance handicap racing, boats of various makes, size and speed use their corrected handicap times. When a boat crosses the finish line, the race committee writes down the hours, minutes and seconds of their finish time, and everyone waits to find out where they actually scored based on their corrected time.
In a pursuit race, each boat is assigned a start time based on its handicap time factor. The staggered start times are then posted with the slowest-rated boat starting first and the fastest-rated boat starting last.
On a day that dawned with very little breeze, Principal Race Officer, Jerry Leth, had pretty much decided that the primary 13.2 nautical mile course might not be sailed, and that he would need to make the call to run the backup 5.17 n.m. course soon.
10 minutes before the schedule start time, the wind filled from the southwest at about 6 to 8 knots and Leth sent everyone on the primary course winding in, out and through Long Beach and Los Angeles harbours. About 30 minutes after the last boat finished, the breeze decided that it had done its job, and shut down for the day.
Second place finisher, Todd Wheatley's Frers 38, Gator, sailed a very strong race in holding off about two-thirds of the fleet of faster-rated boats.
"Sunday's pursuit race was perfect sailing conditions for us," said Wheatley. "All of our regular crew sailed and did a sweet job."
This Long Beach Yacht Club traditional first-of-year Two Gates Pursuit Race is named for the course layout which winds in, around and through Long Beach and Los Angeles Harbors entrances or "gates". However, with sometimes inconsistent winter winds the 13.2 nautical mile primary course is too long for the participants to finish within a reasonable time. That is why the race committee has an alternate 5.17 nautical mile short course.
LBYC re-invented their long-standing Two Gates Invitational race in 2012 and turned it into a pursuit race keeping the traditional 13.2 nautical mile course.
Top finishers overall
- Bob Lane\Lisa Meier, Long Beach YC, Medicine Man
- Todd Wheatley, Alamitos Bay YC, Gator
- Marty Vogel, LBYC, Relentless
- John Sangmeister, LBYC, OEX
- Mick Shlens, King Harbor YC/Cabrillo Beach YC, Blade 2
Top finishers in their class
Class A
- Bob Lane\Lisa Meier, LBYC, Medicine Man
- John Sangmeister, LBYC, OEX
- Mick Shlens, King Harbor YC/Cabrillo Beach YC, Blade 2
- Paul Casanova, SBRYC, Flaquita
- Gordon Leon, Farr 40, Foil
Class B
- Todd Wheatley, Alamitos Bay YC, Gator
- Marty Vogel, LBYC, Relentless
- Dave Weil, LBYC, Hurrah
- Rob Sjostedt, Corsair YC
- Robert Marcus, ABYC, Code Blue
Class C
- Andy Horning, Seal Beach YC, Day Tripper II
- David Booker, Seal Beach YC, lulu
- Martyn Bookwalter, ABYC, Bastante
- Jeanette Borgen, Buccaneer YC, Freyja
- Mario Barron, Buccaner YC, Jolly J
Complete results are available at
www.lbyc.org