All photos courtesy of Martin McCarthy Photography (except where noted) 310.305.9960 fotomccarthy@earthlink.net

Fulfilling their destiny, the odds on favorite (at least on the unofficial betting line posted here) Wings is the 1999 National Champion. Not that it wasn’t close mind you. They actually only squeaked out the victory on a tiebreaker with Ricochet and the best of luck throughout the regatta but especially on the last leg of the last race. Of course, as famous Boston Celtic Bill Russell once said: "There’s only one thing I believe about luck - it’s unlucky to be behind at the end of the game."

The regatta weather was a bit of a surprise for late August with fog dominating the first two days. Nonetheless, the wind was good, ranging from 7 to 12 knots resulting in the use of heavy #1's. But it was a little chilly. After the first day, it was clear that Outlier and Ricochet who shared the lead with identical 1,2,5 scores would duel it out with Wings who had a 3,3,YMP (equal to average of finishes-explained below). The next group in the 14-20 point range was Mischief, Whistler, Piranha and White Fang. Piranha had the only double digit finish in the top 8 on the first day taking them out of it while Whistler had taken the bullet in the last race of the day.

Day two ended with Outlier holding a three point lead over Rico and Wings. Outlier and Wings each won one race. Mischief and Piranha were one point apart racing for the fourth and fifth spots going into day three.

This year’s regatta will long be remembered not for the racing on day two, but the awards banquet and the presentation of the Wooden Spoon by Doug Sisk from Outlier who came in full costume of a British Admiral from 1698. Explaining the 301 year tradition of the Wooden Spoon being awarded to that vessel which both suffers from mishap at sea and which has humor value, the Spoon was by unanimous voice vote of the assembled participants to the vessel Minnesota Fast. After sailing a magnificent race in which they led by more than a hundred yards throughout, Fast approached the upwind finish line - apparently confused. For some unexplained reason, rather than either finishing or rounding the mark directly (which would have resulted in finishing) Fast went all the way around the RC boat, then around the mark and set their spinnaker. As boats began to finish, the spinnaker came down. After another boat or two finished, now having ascertained their grievous error, the headsail went up and they were the fifth boat to sail across the finish line. But Ricochet decide the point ahead of them was valuable enough to add insult to injury and had them disqualified completely for failing to properly sail the course. The day after the Wooden Spoon presentation, Jim Maslon good naturedly acknowledged this heartbreaking turn of event at the owners’ meeting by noting that it insured that his team would go home with a trophy.

Complementary to the Wooden Spoon, a new award called the Silver Platter was also presented to the boat with the greatest stroke of luck in the regatta. Little did we know how important this would turn out to be! When the gun went off to start race #3, Wings had no headsail up - rather, it was stuck in the prefeeder. As fate would have it, the fleet was called back on a general recall which allowed Wings the time to get their sail up with two minutes to spare. But that wasn’t the end of their good fortune. Notwithstanding a big windshift their way during the race saving them many points and giving them sixth place finish, Wings managed to convince the protest committee to grant them redress - average of finishes in place of the sixth - because they claimed to be materially prejudiced by the committee. They argued that (despite a terrible start) they saw the general recall flag up for a moment, and bore off for a restart. Then, realizing there was no general recall, they hardened up on the wind, but now had to duck other boats that they claim they would not have otherwise had to duck. Whew. Well, when all was said and done, without that race - that they initially failed to start at all and in which the YMP was scored as a fourth place finish instead of the sixth on the race course - Wings would not have been the National Champion. Definitely handed to them on a Silver Platter!

Still and all, at the beginning of day #3 any one of the three top boats could have won the regatta and controlled their own destiny on the water. Outlier had a slim lead with Wings and Rico essentially tied. When it turned out to be sunny and warm, most all of the fleet rejoiced - except these three boats who no doubt looked up course at the unsteady light air conditions and had their stomachs churning with stress. Race #1 saw some BIG shifts with a huge lefty filling in and saving some boats from total oblivion. One of them, Mischief, was at one point a couple hundred yards out of first, but with a corner punch got all the way back to third. The top boats in the sixth race were all really close at the finish line with a 25 degree shift to 240 happening right at the finish. Poor Chayah had an enormous lead evaporate in the light air conditions. Unfortunately for Outlier, an 11^th place finish ended their run at a fourth National Championship - leaving a match race between Wings and Ricochet for the final race.

Once again there was a big lefty, but this time, both Rico and Wings were on it. After two laps of sailing in nerve wracking 6-7 knots of wind, Rico was looking good. Just a weather leg to go and they were home free. Whistler led near the last mark with Wings second and Rico third. Even though Wings managed to get by Whistler, Ricochet still had a point to spare in its quest to win Nationals. Then it happened. Way off to the South corner of the race course, Mischief had gone hunting for the big lefty and found it again. Reaching in fast, overstood now by many boatlengths, it was a race between Mischief from the left and Rico off the right. Unfortunately for Rico, Mischief barely beat them to the finish (I hear unconfirmed reports of a couple of feet separating the two) resulting in a tie between Wings and Ricochet. Now the fact that Wings won the last race became critical - with two firsts to Ricochet’s one, Wings won the tiebreaker to win the Nationals.

Meanwhile, for the other trophies, poor Outlier was taking another 11^th - that combined with the second miracle come from behind third of the day for Mischief was enough to drop Outlier all the way to fourth and Mischief took third overall by a point. Fifth was Piranha which completed its season long run in the top five at every HiPoint regatta, PCC’s and Nationals (all of which I’d trade to win one).

Other Observations on the Regatta:

What could have been...Whistler takes 16^th in race #5...ends up 15 points out of first.

The difference between first and sixth was only an average of two positions per race.

Troublemaker wins National Championship defeating Piranha by only 1 foot! (In the rain gutter regatta after the annual banquet)

Dedication...Robert Mooers wife gives birth one week before event allowing Robert to sail Nationals...by induced labor (boy do I see a big diamond coming there)

Race within a race...Stratagem and Magic dueling it out for rookie of the year honors...and Magic crossing Mischief and Stratagem crossing Outlier on the same weather leg!

Bridesmaid again...Ricochet second two years in a row after leading with a race to go.

Ripple wins race #6 by having the courage to jibe away from the other lead boats with only a couple hundred yards to go.

In 2000 we can look forward to returning to Long Beach which last saw Schock Nationals in 1992. Thanks again to California Yacht Club, the dedicated Race Committee volunteers, Dick Squire and Ray Mahaffey for putting on one hell of a show both on and off the water!

- Dave Voss

Congratulations Schock 35 owners!

I had the opportunity to sail in this past weekend's Schock 35 nationals (on Piranha) and I want to pass on my complements to the Schock 35 class in terms of its great competition and clean, fun sailing.

I have been around the Schock 35 class for fourteen years as part of our Race Week. During this time, I have seen tremendous growth in the maturity of the class from a race organizer's viewpoint. In the class's early years, much of Schock 35 racing consisted of boat banging, a large number of protests and many general recalls. The class has evolved and grown past these problematic characteristics and has become a wonderful class to be a part of.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to experience first hand the level of racing in the Schock class and came away from it very impressed. In addition to "growing up" in terms of getting around the course, the class has now become much deeper in terms of competitive boats as evidenced by top 4 finishes going down to 12th place in the fleet standings. I can also tell you that the Schock 35 class probably has more fun ashore than any other class that I have ever been around. This was truly a wonderful weekend - on and off the water. Congratulations!

We are very glad to have the Schock 35 class be a part of our event....and of our event's fifteen year history! The dates for North Sails Race Week 2000 are June 23 - 25, the same weekend as always.

Regards,

Bruce Golison