92nd LA Midwinter Regatta

The Mercury class just completed another fun and challenging weekend of racing in San Pedro.

The hosts, the Southern California Yacht Racing Association and the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club did a great job of getting four races off in building winds - they don’t call it Hurricane Gulch for nothing!

Five races were scheduled but the breeze had built to 20 knots by the beginning of the third race on Saturday, so racing was abandoned for the day after the first two races were completed.  The first day ended with a tight fight for first between Mike Burch with his son Kyle, Doug Baird with Chris Messano and Greg Dair with his brother Frankie, one point apart with 4, 5 and 6 points respectively.  

Day two, with three races scheduled, opened with a lovely 6-10 knot breeze that had built to 10-13 by the first start.  It built further as the day went on so, with the committee busy standing by capsized International 14’s, the decision was made once again to abandon the third race.  Mike Burch with his daughter Kristen sailed another excellent regatta (we need to get that guy off his home waters!) walking away with the victory, while Doug hung on for second place and Randy Smith climbed up the ladder on the last day for third.

On the sail back, past president and current secretary, Park Densmore, sailing with treasurer Don Whelan, had a significant misadventure.  They were port tacked by a Cal 20 and, while the boats more or less avoided each other, the rigs did not.  Park’s rig got tangled in the Cal 20’s and refused to come down which, due to the challenge of controlling the boats in blustery conditions with tangled rigs, resulted in both Don and Park in the water and the Mercury swamped.  Jordy Herschman, a past (and future?) Mercury sailor who had been spectating from his sizable power boat stood by, collecting Don and Park out of the water and taking the Mercury, still swamped, in tow.  Unfortunately, the forestay, to which the tow line was tied due to the inability to access a better connection point, parted and the bow tank, which had done an admirable job of keeping the swamped boat afloat, apparently failed, resulting in the Mercury’s sinking.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is she was recovered on Monday and is sure to be back on the water soon.