By Magnus Liljedahl
Making the road trip to St Pete is something that I look forward to every year. It is great to get out of town and experience something different. It’s a nice way to visit places because you don’t feel like a tourist, but more like a man wih a mission
We brought a couple of Skuds and 2.4s to the event. The Skud sailors were Alex Rickham / Niki Birrell (GBR) and John McRoberts / Stacy Louttit (CAN). Scott Danberg (USA) sailed in the 2.4. The regatta was not as well attended as previous years; financial times must have had something to do with it, but no worries. The intensity was there, especially in the Sonar and Skud. I was pleased to work very closely with the British team, which I had never done before. The Canadian had used our boat for a couple of previous regattas and were well familiar with the boat. It was Scott's first, ever, road trip in sailing and he would gain valuable experience by going. The four-time Paralympic track & field athlete has only been sailing since November of last year.
Alex and her assistant, Ella Hope, had spent eight 10-hour days preparing Skud #001 prior to our departure. She was labeled as a slow boat and we wanted to prove that statement wrong. We removed many of its fittings and hardware, drilled several 4-1/2” holes to explore the structural design of the hull. We build a new steering system so that both tillers would follow the canting seat. We had Alex try several of our seats and she picked the one that she was more comfortable in. We flushed the boat with fresh water and hung the boat to work on the bulb keel and to check the alignment side-to-side and for-and-aft. We left all the new portholes open for the transportation in order to dry her out as much as possible. As result of our efforts, I bet that she was about 10 Kg lighter as we pulled in to St Pete Sailing Center on Tuesday evening. We were definitely on a mission.
St Pete was unusually windy this time around. The regatta had a variety of wind conditions, anything between 2-20 knots. Wednesday was blowing “ the dogs off the chain” and we stayed ashore, tweaking our boats. We kept working on Skud 001 throughout the regatta, making slight improvements all the time. We experimented with moving the seat fore and aft in the boat and it seemed to make a noticeable difference. Scott Whitman and Julia Dorsett were heavy favorites. They had not lost a race this year, winning it all at the Caviglia and the MOCR.
We went sailing on Thursday afternoon. It was important to see if the changes we made would work. Minor adjustments were needed, but it all looked very promising. The session didn’t end without a thrill. The battery cables somehow shorted out on 004. Luckily I was very close to them and was able to rip the cables out before any further damage was done.
The Skud races were very exciting to watch. The four-boat fleet traded positions and there were many lead changes. The Brits did the best the first day, but they bent their mast severely during the fourth and final race of the day. It happened early on, but somehow it didn’t break off and they managed to hold on to win the race. I was really pleased that the boat seemed fast, but with no spare mast available, would they be able to sail the next day? We all figured that it couldn’t possibly end like this. We would surely get it fixed somehow, but how do you repair a super bend, deformed aluminum mast? We got the mast off the boat as soon as we reached the dock. We scanned the sailing center for aluminum sections, but nothing there. Luckily, Gene Hinkle was on hand and he has the resources to fix anything and everything. He put the mast on his truck and we met him at 7.30 the following morning. The mast had been cut of and spliced with an exterior aluminum tube, making it stiffer than ever before. No vang could ever bend this thing.
We made it to racecourse on time. Alex and Niki felt sticky in the first race. We moved the seats forward and they were a lot quicker in the second race. The day belonged to the Canadians in 004. They ended up winning both races that day and continued their streak, winning the two first races on the third and final day. Four bullets put the Canadians in the lead going in to the last race. John and Stacy had a one-point lead over Alex and Niki, while Scott and Julia were two-points back. The Canadians would win a tiebreaker against both teams. If the Brits won the race, they had to finish second.
Scott and Julia were over early and had to go back and restart, loosing valuable ground. They looked out of contention, but came roaring back and were winning the regatta for a while. Then John and Stacy got the lead. I went back and fourth, sort of like watching a college football game. What made it even more interesting was that the Canadian team of Danny McCoy and Audrey Kobayashi finally got in the mix and were winning the race for a while. They had struggled early on in the regatta, but did better as the series progressed. The Brits sailed a solid last beat to regain the regatta lead at the perfect time by winning the last race and the series.
Alex has only helmed a sailboat since this year!? This was her third regatta and she has only sailed since 2006. The Jamaican born athlete was in to horse racing before her accident in 1995. She visited Shake-A-Leg and it opened up her eyes for sailing. She is a very bright young lady with a great focus and a competitive mindset. Niki is about as agile as a disabled person can get and he possesses a lot of energy, a great combination for most team.
Scott Danberg was all smiles after winning the three final races in the 2.4 class. It is his rookie year racing sailboats and he has already come a long way. Betsy Alison gave her newest member of the US Sailing Team valuable pointers, as I was busy with the Skuds. Betsy commented after one of the races “now we have to tell him what a horizon job is”. Ralph Brooks won, beating Scott with a 3-point margin.
Paul Callahan, Brian Hayes and Roger Cleworth won the Sonar class. The racing was tight there as well. Ralf Steitz, Jamie Gross and Alex Baird came on strong in the second half of the series to finish in second, one point behind the winners. Bruce Millar, the Canadian 2.4 sailor, tried a Sonar for the first time, sailing with Tim French and Brenda Hopkins. They finished fifth in place
The awards ceremony took place at the St Pete Yacht Club on Sunday afternoon. Many thanks to SPYC and he race committee for a great job. We will be back, for sure.