USA News and Information

There is a fleet starting on the east coast of America. There are at least seven NS14s now owned in Santa Barbara, California.

Contacts are:
Tony Arends: racerxsailing@comcast.net
Jon Jorgenson: pjorgen@silcom.com
Ron Boehm: rboehm@abc-clio.com

First US NS14 National Titles - Report from Ron
The U.S. Nationals for the NS 14s was held in Santa Barbara, California on October 10 and 11. All seven boats of the US fleet took part, and numerous crew combinations were sailed as the two day regatta determined the Open and the Junior Champion. The regatta was scheduled to coincide with Ian Lisle's visit, and the weekend included a two hour tuning symposium led by Ian. We all learned a great deal about rake, rig tension, sheeting angles, mast rotation, etc while we waited for the wind to fill in. When the wind finally filled in enough for racing around 1 p.m., several valuable sailing hours had already passed, and the scheduled fourteen races for Saturday were reduced to six.

Originally, seven races were planned for the junior sailors on Saturday, and seven for the open sailors. Because many of the junior sailors had prior commitments on Sunday, we gave priority to the junior series, and held four races for them completing their series on Saturday. No team had more than two races in any given boat, as all the boats were new to the sailors. The courses were all sprints, lasting 15 to 25 minutes each, and generally invlved a windward/leeward course with the start/finish line acting as a gate on the downwind leg.

The Junior Championship was a tight race between Alex Bernal sailing with Marco Pavlov and Ted White sailing with Scott Hannay. Alex and Ted usually sail together, but decided to have it out and train some new crews at the same time. Ted and Scott took first in the first race, followed by Alex/Marco, Jeff Simon/Brian Thompson; Diana Bryant/Katie Simon; Kai Sato/Peter Jorgenson; Cleve Motley; and Julian Byrne/Beau Lopker. The second race saw a reversal of the first two positions, setting up a tight race for first. In the third race, Alex and Ted got so locked into an offwind duel that they missed the required gate, and both took a DNF for failing to complete the proper course. Julian Byrne recruited supercrew Ian Lisle when Beau left for an early commitment, and proceeded to be the first to complete the proper course in the third race. This left the standings extremely tight after the third race, with Alex/Marco, Ted/Scott, Diana/Katie all tied on points, with Julian one point behind. In the fourth junior race, the wind came up a bit to about 10 knots, and Alex/Marco had a convincing win in what turned out to be the last junior race to clinch the series. Lack of wind prevented further races.

1. Alex Bernal/Marco Pavlov: 2,1,DNF,1: 11 points
2. Ted White/Scott Hannay: 1,2,DNF,3: 13
3. Jeff Simon/Bryan Thomson: 3,5,4,2 : 14
4T: Diana Bryant/Katie Simon 4,4,2,5 : 15
4T: Julian Byrne/Beau Lopker, Ian Lisle: 7,3,1,4 : 15
6. Cleve Motley/ William Bottoms 6,6,3,6 :21
7. Kai Sato*/ Peter Jorgenson 5, DNF,DNF,DNF: 26

For the open series, prior business commitments kept the fleet fairly mixed up. Only two races were held the first day, as the open group alternated with the juniors and the wind died after six races (4 junior and 2 open) were held. Five additinal races were held for the open fleet on Sunday.
In the first race, Ron Boehm sailing with Julian Byrne led from start to finish, only to cross the wrong finish line. Ian Lisle with Peter Jorgenson crossed the correct line to take first, and Ron was able to get to the finish line in second just before the hard charging Stan and Chelsea Darrow team. In the second race the wind was extremely light, and Ron and Julian took the gun, with Ian/Peter in second. The upcoast current and light winds made the boats overstand the finish mark and required the boats to turn and run to make it below the mark. Stan/Chelsea were the first of a tight group to figure this out and took third.

On Sunday, there was a bit more wind, which increased the enjoyment for all. Ron Boehm with son Kevin crewing in his first regatta shook off an OCS to make it back to the top mark in first, and took three bullets to start the day. Ian/Peter took three seconds, and Bruce and Emily Johnston took three thirds and John and Julian Bryne three fourths.

In the third race, the first on Sunday, Stan Darrow found out that at least one of the shrouds had to be back on the track when he jibed, and in what Ian described as an incredible feat of seamanship managed to save the mast. He finished the race but sustained some damage and had to retire from the series while holding down a series third place.

In the sixth race, Ron/Kevin failed to protect the inside on the run, and Ian/Peter had buoy room rounding the last mark. After a short starboard tack, Ian tacked for the finish boat, only to see the finish boat move to weather. Their anchor had dragged and they were returning to station. Ron and Ian converged at the finish line with Ian just ahead.

The final race had the best wind of the day, around 12 knots, and the crews really had to hike all of their 30-35 kilos to keep the boats close to flat. At the start, three boats charged off, with Ron/Kevin starting 45 seconds late at the wrong end based on the incorrect assumption that the start was one minute later. By the last leeward mark, Ian was still ahead and the other three boats were overlapped. John and Bruce managed to get tangled, and both ended up jibing while still connected, giving the second, and series win, to Ron/Kevin.

1. Ron Boehm/Julian Byrne and Kevin Boehm: 2,1,1,1,1,2,2: 8 pts with throwout
2. Ian Lisle/Peter Jorgenson : 1,2,2,2,2,1,1: 9
3. Bruce Johnston/Emily Johnston : DNF, 4, 3,3,3,3,3: 18
4. John Byrne/Julian Byrne : DNS, DNS, 4,4,4,4,4: 24
5. Stan Darrow/Chelsea Darrow :3,3,5,DNS, DNS, DNS,DNS:29
6. Cleve Motley/Cleve Motley :4, DNS,DNS,DNS, DNS,DNS, DNS:34
7. Karl Lopker/Beau Lopker :5, DNS,DNS,DNS, DNS,DNS, DNS:35

Congratulations to Julian Byrne, who sailed every race in both series, both days, helming in the junior championship (with Ian Lisle and Beau Lopker as crew) and crewing for Ron Boehm on Saturday and his father John on Sunday. Great job!

Thanks to Ian Lisle for his time and training, and to the Australian NS14 Association for their support of the event (great shirts!). Thanks to our race committee Mike Bryant, Neal Faught, and Dave Bernal on Saturday, with Mike providing the boat; and to Jon Jorgenson for his work and boat on Sunday. Special thanks to the boat owners who lent their boats and could not make the event: the Doug Berg family, the Paul Franz family, the Tony Papa family, and the Jens Steenstrup family.

Many people got to see the NS14s race, as the course was held only a few hundred yards off of the Yacht Club and the breakwater. A number of the keelboats after their Saturday race stayed out to watch the races. We should see more sailors join the fleet in the next six months.

Last Updated ( Friday, 10 June 2005 )