ISSA Cressy National Championship - Radial

Day 1 of the 2019 Cressy High School Singlehanded National Championship sponsored by LaserPerformance was in a word, perfect. After the monumental task of assigning boats and equipment all provided new by LaserPerformance to equal the playing ground, the racing began promptly at 11am with a southwesterly breeze filling at about 4-7 knots. The sea state was calm, but the current was ripping causing a lot of unusual starts at the beginning of the day. Competitors were given varying conditions as the breeze increased to 10-12 knots, shifting to the west and letting them stretch their legs a bit. The day settled in and the Race Committee rattled off races while the umpires kept the competitors in check, calling rule 42 penalties a very appropriate amount of the time. At about 1pm, the breeze began to lighten to about 6 knots but hold from the west until a cloud brought a mind bending 30 degree shift to the left and puffs of about 15 knots. The shift caused a course reset delay which ultimately found the wind settling back in at around 230 degrees (right where it was before the shift), but the new pressure stayed seeing 10-14 knots for most of the rest of the day. Nine races were rattled off in each division. The Full Rigs had no protests while the Radials had several protests filed with one resulting in a disqualification and one still being heard Sunday morning.

This event is a huge undertaking and a great amount of gratitude goes out to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, UCSB Sailing Team, and Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation volunteers who did an incredible job pulling off some great racing and unloading 40 boats. Thank you to the title sponsor, LaserPerformance and Coco Solvig for the boats they provided and the immense work she does. And finally, thank you to a pro team of umpires led by Glenn Oliver, and including Vicki Sodaro, Jeff Keenan, Steve Schupak, Bill Lannan, and Claire Hunt.

A less promising forecast in Santa Barbara still led to exciting racing but indeed lighter breeze. A later fill meant a short postponement on the water, however breeze did eventually fill at about 4 knots from the southwest settling in at around 215 degrees at about 6 knots with oscillations in both directions. While the races were lighter air, the competition was still excellent as players pushed hard near the end for their best finish. A full on match race in the radial fleet led to a tie for first place overall between Chapman Petersen '20 of The Hotchkiss School and Nicholas Reeser '21 of St. Thomas Aquinas, while lots of jockeying for position in the full rigs occurred between 3rd and 6th place. However, first and second place in the full rigs were handily taken by Lucas Sawin '20 of Crown Leadership Academy and Nicholas Sessions '20 of Redwood High School.

Five more races were completed to finish the 14 race series. There were a handful of rule 42 calls on the water and multiple protests filed in both fleets with one full rig sailor retiring after finishing and one full rig sailor receiving a disqualification score in the last race. All other protests were disallowed.

The top three in each fleet were awarded take home trophies and Grace Austin was recognized for being the only female sailor. Congratulations to all the sailors who excelled in the competition. It was awesome to take it all in and we hope to see you in Santa Barbara again!

Pictures, video, and results can all be found at https://sbyc.org/2019-cressy-high-school-singlehanded-championship or by following the links below.

Pictures by Eric Andresen - https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJ9BLEo Video by Greg Smith - https://youtu.be/Yhf1AeeJdD0

Again, thank you to the armada of people who helped make this event as great as it could be including LaserPerformance and Coco Solvig, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, the UCSB Sailing Team, the Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation, Kent Pierce (Regatta Chair), Scott & Leslie Deardorff / Loyd Applegate/Sydney Aguirre/Carly Kieding (RC Boat), Jon Ziskind/Claire Wicker/Zoey Ziskind (weather mark), Chris Gabriel/Jake Zieba (gate), Kent Pierce/Michael Zheng/Ken Sherb (start/finish), Jeneane Pierce/Francie Lufkin/Heidi Ziskind/Martee Andreesen (food), Eric Andresen/Eric Stokke (Photo boat), Greg Smith / Bowin De Barros (drone coverage), and our umpire team composed of Glenn Oliver (Chump), Vicki Sodaro, Jeff Keenan, Steve Schupak, Claire Hunt, and Bill Lannan.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.