Umpire's Report

Races 1 through 13 (including 2 byes) were sailed Saturday in winds ranging from light to moderate and shifting from approximately 30 to 100 deg. Several races provided aggressive pre-start tactics to keep the umpires busy while entertaining the spectators. Most races also had at least one change of place, keeping things interesting right down to the finish. One race (I think it was #11, Nieves vs Meyer) had the closest finish: less than a foot at the line. It was so close that the umpires could not tell who won even from about 3 feet behind the line, beside the leeward boat. A couple of others were not much farther.

All that was left for Sunday was the final, which ended up requiring 2 races as Jim won the first, sending Andy to the losers bracket for the first time. They then swapped boats for another go. The wind was consistently lighter than Saturday and varied from about 80 to 130 deg. Both races saw at least one leg shortened which did not affect the outcome except for possibly avoiding the rather short time limit.

Jim won the first start by 3 or 4 boat lengths due to a pre-start error by Andy. Either he misjudged the distance to the line or the time it would take the boat to accelerate after turning to the start. In the first few minutes, Jim managed to stretch his lead significantly on the first leg. The race was essentially uneventful after that and Andy never caught up, leaving Jim to win by several boat lengths. The second windward leg was shortened from 3/4 to approximately 1/2 mile.

Andy won the second start due to good pre-start tactics, taking up firm residence on Jim's transom at about 2 minutes to go then forcing him well beyond the signal boat. Ensuring they would be several seconds late for the gun, Andy then quickly tacked and headed for the start. That left Jim to tack behind, ending up about 3 boat lengths astern at the start. Andy then proceeded to stretch his lead as Jim had done in the first race. With something near a 10 length lead, he was well ahead and leeward. The leeward part of that turned out to be his big mistake. As he was nearing the port tack layline, a big right shift presented itself with both boats still on starboard tack. As you might guess, the shift was quite persistent and put Jim, the inside/windward boat, about 4 boat lengths ahead at the windward mark rounding. It was too late to move the leeward mark by that time so the downwind leg was your proverbial "reaching parade" yielding no opportunity for Andy to close the gap. If anything, Jim may have even increased his lead slightly. The next beat was relatively uneventful but Jim did manage to gain a little. Due to dying wind, the last leg was shortened but the outcome was already pretty well decided.

I think everyone really enjoyed the weekend, even those who didn't fare so well. The race officers had to work hard getting so many races done but they all appeared quite satisfied at the end. I know the umpires enjoyed the event; we had by far the best seat in the house, being right there to see all the excellent tactics and boat handling, "up close and personal." Of course, we also were eye witness to the mistakes and errors in judgement. We do, however, salute all the competitors for sailing extremely well. They were all champions in order to get there in the first place. And everyone, win or lose, performed as we would expect champions to perform. Those of you who were not there to spectate, missed a heck of an event. I certainly encourage everyone to come out next year. This was surely the most exciting racing of the year.

On a final note, the Commodore's Cup Committee did an outstanding job of planning and effecting this year's event. Everything worked out exactly as planned (at least from an observer's viewpoint). The boats were exceptionally well prepared and equalized. In fact, I can't think of a single thing that might have been improved or run smoother.

P.S. The overall results are show below for those interested (race numbers in bold)