san francisco regatta
FINAL RESULT
10th ANNUAL 18ft SKIFF INTERNATIONAL REGATTA
St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco, California
The US CST Composites team of Howie Hamlin, Paul Allen and Matt Noble took out the 10th Annual 18ft Skiff International Regatta at San Francisco after a week long battle between themselves and two Australian teams, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon/Trevor Barnabas, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas) and Yandoo (John Winning, Andrew Hay and David Gibson).
For the 56-year -old Southern Californian Hamlin, it was his 6th victory in the ten years the event has been staged and a wonderful tribute to the effort and enthusiasm he puts into his preparation and the support of the class throughout the world.
CST Composites went into the final day's racing with a one point lead over Yandoo and five points over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers.
In a day which saw many changes throughout the racing, Hamlin and his team took out the last race of the regatta to seal their victory by three points (14 points) from Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (17) with Yandoo (19) a further two points back in third place.
CT Sailbattens from New Zealand (Alex Vallings, Chris Hiller, Josh McCormack) finished fourth on 32 points, followed by Smeg, from Australia, (Nick Press, Dan Phillips, Brent Dennis) on 34 and NZ's Maersk Line (Graham Catley, Nick Catley, Riley Deaan) on 51.
Hamlin paid tribute to sailmaker Jay Glaser of Glaser Sails: "Jay has built a second version of a spinnaker for us and that made a big difference. Woody (John Winning, Yandoo) always used to crush us downwind and now we were faster than him downwind".
Winning paid tribute to the the locals and the quality of the fleet: "It was encouraging to see the turnout by local boats from the Skiff Sailing Association and a 15-boat fleet overall. The bottom end of the fleet is getting better here, and there's more of them".
10th ANNUAL 18ft SKIFF INTERNATIONAL REGATTA
St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco, California
Australia's John Winning, Andrew Hay and David Gibson (YANDOO) retained their lead in the 18ft Skiff International Regatta, but Day 3 racing results and first discard has seen the YANDOO team's lead reduced to just one point, with dour races still to be sailed. Their team score is 8 points.
The US CST COMPOSITES team of Howie Hamlin, Matt Noble and Paul Allen won race six of the regatta to pull back two points from YANDOO, with a total of 12 points.
Hamlin will be all out to grab the victory which would give him his sixth 18ft Skiff International Regatta win at San Fran.
Trevor Barnabas, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas (THURLOW FISHER LAWYERS) finished second, behind CST, in race 6 but a OCS in the previous race proved costly and the team is now third on 17 points.
Fourth overall is SLAM/MOUNTS BAY WA (Grant Rollerson, Justin Healey and Marco Schuermann) on 18 points and New Zealand's CT SAILBATTENS (Alex Vallings, Chris Hiller and Josh McCormack) on 19.
There will now be a lay day before the regatta resumes on Thursday with another race over the same course and the classic Bridge-to-Bridge.
(photos by Erik Simonson, Rich Roberts and Christophe Favreau are published under the 'photos' menu 'san francisco' and 'christophe favreau')
10th Annual 18ft Skiff International Regatta
St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco, California
After the first two days racing (four of 10 races) in the 10th Annual 18ft Skiff International Regatta, the event is being fought out between three of the class veterans - John Winning, Howie Hamlin and Trevor Barnabas.
'Woody' Winning (Yandoo) leads the fleet on eight points, followed by Howie Hamlin (CST Composites) on 11 and Trevor Barnabas (standing in for the injured defending champion Michael Coxon on Thirlow Fisher Lawyers) on 15 points.
Consistency has been the Yandoo team's strength so far with one win, two seconds and a third placing making up their eight points total.
There is no denying the ability of Hamlin (2) and Barnabas (5) who have won seven Giltinan (world) Championships between them, yet both have capsized during the first two days racing.
The first of two discards will take effect after Race 5, which could alter the overall placings after Day 3 of the regatta.
(images from Erik Simonson www.h2oshots.com and Rich Roberts are included under 'san francisco regatta' in the 'photos' page)
