Regatta Report - The Santa Cruz Yacht Club
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Volume 93, Number 04 April 2021
Regatta Report
Well things are definitely looking up. The intended, on Saturday, the first day of Spring. Homer
Three Buoy Fiasco had 6 SC 27s and 10 Moore 24s Lighthall worked his windy magic and put the last
finish this inaugural race. It closely followed the model three of nine races in the books. Michael Hutchison
of the Three Bridge Fiasco with shifts in wind, position and Aquavit showed up and collected First Place in A
and strategies that looked good one minute and terrible Fleet. Evan Diola of Mistress Quickly had to throw out
the next. Ryan Schuyler on Hanalei got home first of his worst race, a second, to show Kasatka and Hana-
the 27s and Chris Watts of Watts Moore led the Moore lei how to get around quickly in B Fleet. Jersey Girl
24s, although it didn’t always look like that was going couldn’t finish the last race; some rule about having
to happen. the Commodore on board at the finish as well as at the
Chris Hofmann’s Winter Weather Window start. Paul Basanese and the crew of Gandalf were
Timed Race for 2021 is open until tax day, April 15th. dominant in the Jib and Main class. They sat out the
With the windier weather, you still have a chance to last race, assured of winning the series, and watched
post even better results. Results as of March 17 show Steve Niemann aboard The Perfect Thirty Six take
Mark Merritt aboard New Wave and Rachel Cherry Tusitala and Jim Weaver on corrected time. Congratu-
on Kasatka with Odonata and Chris Hofmann close lations to all the competitors for having a wonderful
behind generally finding the fastest times around the racing experience this difficult winter of our discon-
cove. Thanks Chris for a creative and fun way to com- tent. You made and deserved all the fun you had in the
pete. Preliminary results may be viewed under “No- face of difficulties. Thanks, also, to the volunteers who
tices” at the event website. made this series and who make all racing possible.
Midwinter Series wrapped up, no headsail pun Thirteen boats showed up for the first Tuesday
April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker
May brings us the Moore 24 National Championships,
May 7 though 9. Once the racing marks are painted,
they will go out. See you on the water.
Stefan Berlinski
Regatta Chairman
Commodore is Overboard!
Saturday was, as Winnie-the-Pooh might say,
“ . . . a blustery day.” We know the story and how it
goes. Like the fisherman’s hyperbole the details fly in
the face of those listening to a sailor tell the story. The
blues were bluer, the whitecaps were furious, the wind
was wailing like a wraith searching for souls to be-
queath to the grim reaper. Just ask anyone who sailed in
the Midwinters last Saturday and you will get a plethora
of stories . . . but on one thing we’ll all agree, it was
“ . . . a blustery day.”
I showed up at the harbor Saturday morn-
ing to join with Joe Wagster and his crew on Jersey
Girl. Since Joe’s tried and true foredecky moved out of
town, I have been managing the foredeck. I had been
the foredeck on Duet for many years yet was happy to
pass it onto another, younger, person and found myself
Night Race. A lovely evening of moderate winds. Read midship. Now, Duet is in the Pacific Northwest and Joe
all about it at http://sailingpairadice.blogspot.com and Wagster’s foredeck went South—literally. I “raised my
check out your metrics on RaceQs. The following hand” and there I was at the “pointy end”. Joe had been
evening was the first Wednesday Night gathering. Not trying to entice Kevin Kiaski to come join us and take
as much wind as Tuesday, but the Club was open for St. on being foredeck. And, yes! Kevin joined us on Satur-
Patrick’s Day social distanced festivities to compensate. day. The plan was that he and I would “double-hand”
Last, but not least, we open our regular season with the foredeck so he could familiarize himself with the
Spring One Design on Saturday the 17th and SCORE details of where things are on Jersey Girl. I was happy
Sunday the 25th. Look for the NORs to be posted soon. to work alongside Kevin; we had experience doing the
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker Sheet
foredeck together on Gandalf with our other good
foredeck friend, Kris North. I was looking forward to
working with Kevin. And the wind forecast seemed to
call for two, or at least to have a back-up.
Tacking out of the harbor, with our number
three, we were thinking that with the prospect of the
wind building that the three was the right call. Then,
of course, Evan Diola on Mistress Quickly had his #2
. . . no wait . . . that looks like a #1. We stayed with
our three. The first two races went by without a hitch.
Kevin and I were getting into a rhythm with setting up
the lines, raising the spinnaker, dousing the jib, and
jibbing without a hitch. I could see that Kevin was
in line for being the foredeck for Jersey Girl in the I watched the crew working to get the spinnaker down
upcoming one design series. and resigned myself that I would be in the water until
At the end of the day, I was up at the club tak- they would return to fetch me. Unbeknownst to me
ing a warm shower when Frank from Hanalei entered in the frigid water, Joe hailed the race committee that
declaring how cold he was and that he and another there was a man overboard. Within minutes, the support
crew member nearly went overboard. “Huh,” I thought race committee boat floated up next to me. John Mizell
quietly. It was a blustery day. So you might ask, “Why and Corinthian Daniel pulled me into the rib and Scott
were you in the shower?” powered us up racing to the hoist where I climbed up
The third race, Jersey Girl got off to a strong start. We and headed to the shower where I saw Frank of Hana-
were sailing well, on starboard tack when we reached lei.
up to the windward buoy and Matt, our midshipman, Later I learned that with that lurch of the boat
called for us to raise the pole and ready ourselves. and wind, Kevin, too, almost went overboard, but man-
The spinnaker went up, the jib came down and off we aged to grab hold of life lines and stayed onboard.
went. Now in race two, on the downwind, Kevin and I My story ends well. I am grateful to the Jersey
saw the speedo hit 12.5 knots. This is what Bill Lee’s Girl crew, have had a thrill racing with them and will
legacy is all about. So here we were in race three, be back. I am grateful for Joe Wagster and his fast
having rounded the windward mark, with the wind response to hail the Race Committee. I’m also grateful
howling out of the Northwest. Our tactician called for to the speed with which I was rescued. I was out of the
a jibe. Kevin and I responded. Kevin had released the water in no time. Thank you Scott, John and Daniel.
jaws of the pole, set the new guy and was struggling Kevin… and Jersey Girl, see you soon.
with the bouncing foredeck. I put my hands up to help
guide the pole to the mast ring when. . . Tom Postlewaite
In a New York second, I was catapulted into SCYC Commodore 2021
the air and overboard. Bobbing up to the surface, I
rolled on my back and watched as Jersey sailed away. What to Do if You Fall or are Thrown Overboard
• Don’t panic. Try to get control of your breathing.
Hold onto something or stay as still as possible
until your breathing settles down. Focus on float-
Master Boat Builders Since 1973 ing with your head above water until the cold
shock response abates.
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• Do not exhaust yourself by flailing and thrash-
ing in the water. Your life jacket will keep you
831.818.0992 • www.lighthallmarine.com
homersail@gmail.com • Santa Cruz Harbor Boatyard afloat. Keep your clothing and shoes on. Air
495 Lake Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95062 trapped in your clothing can actually help keep
Mailing: P.O. Box 86, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 you afloat rather than sinking.
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker
• Get into the H.E.L.P. Position. If you are not able
to get out of the water immediately, especially in
cold water, bring your knees up to your chest and
keep your arms crossed, hugging your lifejacket.
The Heat (H) Escape (E) Lessening (L) Position
(P) will help keep the major areas of your body
from losing heat.
From Boat-Ed.
Coast Guard, National Park Service
Dry Storage Waiting List
1 06/12/2002 Gorman, S
2 11/25/2002 Landis-Carey, V
3 10/27/2011 Davenport, K
4 03/26/2016 Richter, T
5 02/23/2018 Murphy, D
6 11/01/2018 Parley, M
7 11/03/2018 Lewis, R
8 11/20/2018 Curran, P
9 01/02/2019 Hung, S
10 01/20/2019 Basanese, A
Dinghy Storage Waiting List
1 06/31/2016 Terrence Hensley
2 06/13/2017 Davi Ottenheimer
3 02/08/2018 Geoff Boraston
4 03/27/2018 Doris Welch
5 05/08/2018 Robert Rittenhouse
6 04/09/2019 Elizabeth Bertrand
7 06/19/2020 Ana Matheson
8 06/27/2019 Kristen Lenz
9 07/01/2020 Bob Warfield
10 08/03/2020 Tristan Bellevin (Jr.)
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker Sheet
Vice Commodore
Spring has sprung, the clocks have done their
thing and Wednesday evening sailing is back! We can’t
wait to see you at the club on Wednesday evenings,
Friday dinner and special events. On St. Patrick’s Day,
Amazing Graze Catering prepared corned beef, cab-
bage, potato and carrots in a scrumptious broth and
it was truly “amazing”. It was by far one of the best
corned beef and cabbage dinners I’ve ever had. Our
catering company is aptly named! I highly recommend
Kiely’s Grazing Board as well. We took two to-go to
enjoy on our boat and guests raved about them.
Installation Dinner
April 10th at the Elks’ Club.
We are looking forward to having a house
work-day when it’s safe. In the meantime, a small crew
There is a cocktail hour with live music set to
gathered to prepare the walkway for the installation of
begin at 5:00pm followed by a buffet dinner catered
the remaining walkway lights. Thank you Steve Nie-
by Mickey of the Elk’s Club. The evening will be
mann, Jim Skinner, Jason Lauer, Joe Altmann, Mat-
MC’d by Staff Commodore Joe Altmann. Awards
thew Coale and Robert Carey for their help readying
will be given for Yachtswoman of the Year, Yachtsman
the area
of the Year, and the Dave Goodale Trophy, and other
And the next time you’re at the club, check
important recognitions. During the presentations there
out the new lower deck. Huge thank you to the many
will be surprises for the dinner guests. The evening
volunteers over the years who helped that deck get to
will conclude with more live music. Make your reser-
an incredible 44-year lifespan through their care and
vations soon.
maintenance. A typical redwood deck lasts an aver-
Be Involved: We welcome all new members.
age of 30 years, or possibly 40 years if extremely well
If you want to be involved in the activities of the club,
maintained. Due to their hard work, the lower deck
please contact the Commodores and let us know your
managed to get well beyond that. Their efforts are so
interests. There is plenty to do and like the saying goes
appreciated!
. . . “the more, the merrier”. You may reach the Com-
modores at: commodore@scyc.org; vicecommodore@
Hope to see you soon,
scyc.org; and rearcommodore@scyc.org.
Recently Hennie Strydom and Cassidy
Vance Landis-Carey
Kjeldsen volunteered to look into SCYC doing a
Vice Commodore
beach clean-up with local organization, Save Our
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker
Shores. I look forward to hearing how this will unfold into the fast growing list of work that needs to be done
for us as SCYC supports our community. on this boat. I started out sailing a Laser, but really got
At the March Board Meeting the Directors ap- hooked with racing on the SF Bay in the Etchells class.
proved an ad hoc Online Clothing Committee charged I have sailed Etchells, Open 5.7’s, and Mercury’s out
with investigating an on line clothing option. I want to of Richmond for the past 15 years. Traveling to SCYC
everyone to know that this is not to supplant our cur- for events over the years has always been fun and it is
rent system of clothing sales. We are grateful for them an incredibly beautiful place to sail. I work at a medi-
for their on-going dedication. The committee that is cal device startup in Los Gatos (UDP Labs) and spend
investigating is Chair PJ Panzica, Ann Niemann, Traci most of my time in Aptos with my better half, Jes-
Turner, Melina McLarty, and Vice Commodore Vance sica. Look forward to meeting all of you on land and
Landis-Carey. Thank you all for your time and efforts. on the water!
See you at the windward buoy,
Todd Austin
Tom Postlewaite
Commodore
Three Buoy Fiasco
Membership
It was a fun race and so nice to be able to get Dave
Shelton back out in a Moore 24 after more than a decade.
Please welcome our new member. Thanks to
We had a great race, starting at the pin on port, upwind speed
Peter Curran and Nick Halmos for sponsoring Todd
was solid, leading at the first mark that everyone chose, but
Austin.
we over stood by 300 yards or so. Then, we set for a course
we thought was towards the offshore mark #2, but didn’t
De Schuyler, Melina McLarty, Hoagie and Peggy Hoo-
have any electronics nor a good heading and got nervous.
genson and Charlie Rice
We gybed a couple of times while searching for the mark,
Membership Committee
and eventually made for the first mark we could see, which
turned out to be the inshore mark. So, we got that mark out
New Member bio
of the way and beam reached offshore to the last mark. For-
tunately, many followed us and many of the boats heading
As the new owner of Santa Cruz 27 Interlude,
for the offshore mark had trouble finding it and were delayed
I am incredibly eager to learn from the fleet and dig
a little - all except for Chris Watts, who nailed it. Those that
followed Watts had essentially a one-tack beat to the finish,
able to close reach a little to round the last mark, so we had
some ground to make up. Rounding the last mark, we had
a one-tack close reach all the way to the finish. But, we had
set up the boat well for this - leads way outboard, outside the
shrouds with the jib sheet, etc. - and put the bow down as
best we could. We managed to just edge out Hodges at the
finish to take 2nd, with Watts taking 1st easily. Much like the
3-bridge fiasco, all we could do was to win the direction we
chose.
The race was great fun and our biggest regret was
spending most of the run trying to find the marks instead of
just blasting on the waves. All good though. Thanks for
organizing Syd!!!
Stephen Bourdow
Moorgasm #36
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker Sheet
than two tacks.
A fabulous day on the water. And class win-
ners received beautiful wooden-chart-clocks, just in
time for Daylight Savings!
Overall top 3: Hanalei (SC27, Ryan Schuy-
ler), closely followed by WhatsMoore (Christopher
Watts) and Kasatka (SC27, Rachel Cherry).
Frank van Diggelen
Hanalei
Santa Cruz Three Buoy Fiasco
A race so good they did it twice. Back in Febru-
ary, Santa Cruz harbor was beset by too much sand and
shallow waters, so the SCYC TBF had been postponed,
but the intrepid Sydnie Moore organized a Bootleg-TBF
anyway (report in last month’s L38). Mar 13 saw the Of-
ficial TBF event.
Covid has sure made us eager to sail, and a
double-handed fleet of 11 Moores and 7 SC27s ventured
out through the freshly dredged harbor. The event was
run as a pursuit race, with SC27s chasing the Moores.
With a stiff North-Westerly, the only sensible option Hard Work Paying Off!
was counter-clockwise, and everyone chose it, starting
upwind. Since the fall of 2020, a group of about 8 of
Both classes enjoyed a fabulous downwind leg: us have been training hard with our coach Ali (SCYC
kites flying, little crew weight, and ultralights made for Coach). Learning boat-handling and tactics for Laser
a 5-mile surfing bonanza. On Hanalei we saw 14 knots- sailing and racing. Although all of us had been sailing
plus on a couple of waves. Face masks were blown clean with the high school CFJ program for a while, for
away in 25 kts gusting 30. Several boats enjoyed the most of us it was our first time ever sailing Lasers!
waves so much that they followed them well to the left of Flash forward to a couple weekends ago when
the rhumb line before paying the price of the detour. we all experienced our first Laser Regatta with our
lovely hosts at Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club. That
The tactics of the day were: get the kite up, surf,
Saturday we had a steady breeze of about 12 gusting
sail straight, don’t crash, fetch to the third mark, short
to 15 kts with it picking up further in the afternoon. It
beat to the finish. The whole 9 miles required no more
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker
(Ximena Greatorex)
was a beautiful sunny day off the coast of Monterey out
from the pier. We were all super excited and prepared to
race and finally get to try out our skills in a real regatta.
Race committee was relentless, running all our races
consecutively with almost no breaks for a big three hour
chunk, we sailed hard, pushing ourselves to hold our
spots in the placements.
By the first race we knew that the left side of the
course was greatly favored since a Monterey sailor was
able to bang the edge and cut ahead of all of us who took
the safe route up the middle. After noticing that, I started
next to the Monterey sailors who were consistently win- was so kind and also insanely good at knowing how
ning and covered them up the race course. I kept going to handle the boat and race fairly. We had a small
with this for the rest of the day, fighting on the down- social distanced awards ceremony and were proud to
wind as well, trying to catch as many waves as possible learn that we’d held our own against the competition.
as to not get passed by those behind me. I came in 2nd place. Congratulations to Dante in 1st
Sailing back into the harbor we all talked about and Gabe for 3rd both from MPYC. Additionally, we
how it was the best regatta we have sailed in. Everyone had Dante from SCYC in fifth and the whole team
raced well and scored in the upper spots. Good job to
Tristan, Trevin and Nick as well! Our hard work paid
off and it was an amazing regatta. We all hope to con-
tinue learning and racing more throughout the year!
Ximena Greatorex
SCYC Junior
Dante (MPYC), Gabe (MPYC), Ximena (SCYC)
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April 2021 Santa Cruz Yacht Club Spinnaker Sheet
RBOC Updates
Continuing Our Call to Action – RBOC is still
focused on fighting Governor Newsom’s proposed state
budget. If the governor’s proposal is enacted, all Cali-
fornia boaters can expect to see their boat registration
fees increase 250% from a minimum of $20 every two
years to at least $70 every two years, starting as soon as
July 1st. Budget subcommittees in both the state Sen-
ate and Assembly are discussing this proposal now. It is
anticipated that they will decide on the issue in the next
few weeks. RBOC and BoatUS are working together to
lobby against the increase. Both organizations are urging
us to contact our state senator and assembly members
to request that this proposal be revised to ensure that all
boaters’ taxes are being used for their intended pur-
poses. Check RBOC’s website (rboc.org) for the most than 115 lbs. of static thrust – or about the size of a 2-hp
recent updates. There is a link available across the top engine. Usage will not be mandated during low speed
of every page that will make this easy. It is labeled: activities like fishing and docking maneuvers. It will be
GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROPOSES 250% BOAT enforced on all federally navigable waterways and can
REGISTRATION FEE INCREASE – CLICK HERE TO carry a $100 fine for the first offense. It is expected that
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! the US Coast Guard’s initial focus will be on education.
Another Issue at the State Level – Califor- BoatUS supports this law and is encouraging all affected
nia government is pushing the boating industry to go vessel owners to verify that their cutoff mechanisms are
greener for 2030 and beyond. Our legislators are devel- fully functional. Additional information is available on
oping new initiatives to limit and ultimately eliminate the RBOC, BoatUS and US Coast Guard websites.
gasoline and diesel engines in California. Having our If you haven’t already done so, please help sup-
voices heard will be critical at this time. RBOC is urging port RBOC’s efforts by making a $25 donation. Be sure
us to express our opinions on this matter now. to submit a separate check payable to RBOC with your
And on the National Level – There are new next SCYC payment. Greg will make sure that I receive
engine cutoff device wear requirements for recreational it so I can forward it to RBOC on your behalf. As a club
boat operators. The new law, applying to boats that are we have raised a total of $1,130 with 32 families partici-
less than 26 feet operating on plane or above displace- pating as of 3/12/2021.
ment speed, will be effective on April 1st. Usage will
be required for vessels that have the cutoff mechanisms Paula Kiaski
installed and for those manufactured in January 2020 or
later. A vessel is exempt if the boat’s motor produces less
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