photo by Geoff Pease
The Melges 24 fleet lines up for a closely-contested start on the south course during CYC's Puget Sound Sailing Championships.
by Joe James
"We had six races today and I'm exhausted," said Cindy Gossett after sailing her J-30 Outlaw Saturday on the south course of PSSC. "Well how did you do?" Her only response was, "I'm tired."
Our Shilshole clubhouse on Saturday evening was filled with happy and tired sailors. Six races on the south course and four on the north course for the larger boats. Winds of eight to twelve knots and a flood current all afternoon. What more could a sailor ask?
Friday evening a good crowd had gathered in the clubhouse to hear Bruce Hedrick and Jack Christiansen predict the wind, current and tactical maneuvers for the weekend. Pizza, cookies and salad were provided by North Sails, the sponsor for PSSC. North Sails also provided a large white canvas on the west wall of the clubhouse with CYC prominently displayed similar to the background for press conferences from the Seahawks and Huskies. The canvas is mounted on a roller furler so it can be displayed when needed to darken the room for pictures.
Sunday saw lighter winds than Saturday in the three to eight knot range. Five more races were sailed for the Melges 24 and Moore classes while the rest had four races. On the north course the wind was slower to fill in leaving us with only two races. Can any other yacht club in the Northwest match the number and quality of races provided by our expert PRO's Kevin Cunningham and Charley Rathkopf, their whaler drivers and volunteers?
So how tight was the racing? Well on the north course after six races, two of the classes had to resort to the tie-breaking formula to decide the winner. In P2, Declaration of Independence won over The Boss because Brian Watkins had one more first place than Wayne Berge. In P4, Tantivy and Illusionist had the same score and the same number of first place finishes but Stuart Burnell sneaked out with a victory because he had two seconds to Dave MacLean's one. At the other end of the first place finishers were Mike Schultz and Dave Martin/Tom Gilbert who both won all but one of their six races.
On the south course the closest racing was in P11 where Steve Trunkey's Egress scored one point less that Nate Creitz' Three Ring Circus after 10 races. Eleven Melges 24's sailed all 11 races with Dan Kaseler winning and Matt Macgregor in second with five more points. Other winners were John Cahill, Ken Chinn, Ben Braden and Gil Lund.
Fleet Captain Race, Lorenzo Migliorini, came up with the plan to find a sponsor for this regatta. Lorenzo and Jack Christiansen worked out a model regatta which we hope to replicate in the future as we look for more sponsors for our events.
photo by Bruce Sherman
Mike Schiltz, second from right, owner and skipper of the J/105 Money Shot, won five out of six races to take first-place class honors in CYC's Puget Sound Sailing Championships. From left in the photo are Jack Christiansen of North Sails, sponsor of the regatta, Schiltz's girlfriend Julie Wallace, his son, Nathan, Schiltz and Chris Winnard of North Sails.
Results: North Course - South Course
More of Geoff Pease's photos
Bruce Hedrick's photos