Etchells Fleet 13 2012 ORCA Bowl sponsored by Sailing Supply

The San Diego Yacht Club hosted twenty competitive Etchells teams in the 2012 ORCA Bowl sponsored by Sailing Supply and sailed on the Coronado Roads in light to medium winds over the weekend of May 19-20. Since the inaugural ORCA Bowl event in 1985, this regatta has annually provided close competition for top Etchells sailors from San Diego and beyond.

This year’s event featured a pre-regatta chalk-talk by defending champion (and 2011 World Champion) Bill Hardesty on Friday evening, where Bill revealed some of his proven strategies for consistent starting and managing the Coronado Roads race course. A video of Bill’s talk can be viewed at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njyfGuKrjGE.

On Saturday, the 7-10 knots of wind from the South-West enabled three WLWL course races to be completed before fading in the late afternoon. At the end of the day, Bruce Nelson and Vince Brun topped the leaderboard with Andrew Whittome and Bill Hardesty tied on points for third. Saturday evening featured Kjeld Hestehave’s famous Central Coast BBQ in the SDYC Pavilion where the fleet feasted on grilled tri-tip and brisket while swapping recipes and half-truths about the day’s racing.

Sunday morning the well-fed fleet towed out early to resume the battle in conditions similar to Saturday’s.  SDYC PRO Bruce Greene was able to run four more quality races, and Team Hardesty sailed determinedly to three first places and a second to regain the coveted ORCA Bowl for 2012. Nelson (sailing with John Gladstone and Jose Martin-Niete) held on for second place while Brun won the tie-breaker from Whittome for third place.  Staff Commodore Andy LaDow, sailing with Vice Commodore Chuck Hope and Patrick Sloan, won the top Corinthian (and Board of Directors) award while finishing in seventh place overall.

The full results can be viewed on the SDYC website at: http://www.sdyc.org/raceinfo/results12/orca_res.htm.

It is exciting to watch newcomers to the Etchells fleet like Dan Aeling and Summer Greene improving and battling it out with the veterans on the race course. The next Etchells One Design Weekend is July 14 – hope to see many new and old faces then.

Bruce Nelson, Fleet Captain