Cal Maritime wins the LA Harbor

SUNY Maritime, UC Irvine, Maine Maritime and Cal State U. Channel Islands followed in close order, although the latter won twice over the three-day weekend before struggling to last place in the last two races.

Tom Trujillo's race committee ran the two-lap races on an open ocean course west of the Los Angeles Harbor entrance, which saw light winds Friday, better breeze Saturday with a brutal swell, then flatter seas Sunday with a fair chop and a southwesterly building from seven to twelve knots. The early races were on windward-leeward courses measuring a mile the first day, eight-tenths Saturday and only a half-mile Sunday when the RC was pressed to fill the complement of 10 races without starting any after 2:30 p.m.

As it was, each race ran only about a half-hour and they clicked off the triple play with plenty of Daylight Saving Time to spare.

Sunday's other winners were UC Irvine and Charleston.

Cal Maritime's new coach, Parker Mitchell, said, 'We had some serious wheels upwind … and were able to get out of sticky situations.'

Van Rensselaer was sailing his second year as skipper and the only senior on the boat.

'We practiced super hard,' he said, 'and we were ready.'

There were no miscues they couldn't overcome, despite losing trimmer Jessica Bernhard the night before the event. While Bernhard recovered from emergency appendicitis surgery, her older sister Alicia stepped into her position without missing a beat.

'She was fantastic,' Van Rensselaer said of Alicia. 'She's a trooper.'

The Port of Los Angeles is the event sponsor, the Los Angeles Yacht Club the regatta organizer and host for the West Coast's only intercollegiate big boat regatta.
Final standings - (10 races; no throwouts) :

1. Cal Maritime, 1-1-2-1-1-5-2-2-5-1, 21 points.
2. College of Charleston, 5-4-3-2-3-6-7-3-1-5, 39.
3. SUNY Maritime New York, 2-8-6-6-2-2-4-4-3-4, 41. 4. UC Irvine, 6-3-7-3-4-1-9-1-8-3, 45.
5. Maine Maritime, 3-5-5-7-7-3-5-6-9-2, 52.
6. CSU Channel Islands, 4-2-1-5-10-7-1-5-10-10, 55.
7. U.S. Naval Academy, 11/DSQ-6-4-4-6-10-6-9-2-6, 64.
8. USC, 8-9-8-8-9-4-3-8-4-9, 70.
9. Michigan, 7-7-10-10-5-8-8-10-7-8, 80.
10. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 9-10-9-9-8-9-10-7-6-7, 84.

Event website

by Rich Roberts