Sunday's bullet leads to fifth-place overall finish at POLA Harbor Cup
Results
SAN PEDRO, Calif. – With eight races completed entering the final day of action at the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup, co-hosted by the Los Angeles Yacht Club and Cal Maritime, the Keelhaulers started their Sunday with a bullet, its fifth top-three race result of the weekend. Once this year's field completed the 10th, and final race of the regatta, CSUM secured fifth with 53 team points.
Hawai'i, the defending Harbor Cup champs, also ended the weekend with 53 points but lost its tiebreaker against the Keelhaulers, based on head-to-head results.
By placing second and first, respectively, in Sunday's races, Maine Maritime jumped from third to become this year's Harbor Cup champion, erasing its two-point deficit against USC, who entered the day atop the regatta's standings, in the process.
With 39 points, the Trojans finished seven behind Maine Maritime; Navy rounded out the top three two points shy of USC's total.
This year's crew — representing the Keelhaulers were Cyrus Khaleeli, Kayleigh Andres, Cianna Coyle, Ryan Downey, Ben Louttit, Clay Myers, Etienne Quille, Max Roth, Cooper Smith and Django Knafo-Tomlinson — enjoyed a strong start to the weekend by placing third in two of the three races that took place on Friday.
Entering Saturday's slate of races in fifth place overall, just five team points behind a College of Charleston team that sat atop the leaderboard, race officials were able to squeeze five races into the day's schedule before it was time for everyone to return to the dock.
Feast or famine: That summed up CSUM's second day on the water since it finished third in twice that afternoon and within the bottom three in another pair of races.
In Saturday's opening race, the Keelhaulers were forced to deal with a tough start since another team submitted a protest against them. Rather than take their chances and continue racing, leaving that race's ultimate fate in the hands of Harbor Cup officials, Cal Maritime decided to complete a penalty turn before continuing that race.
Following the Saturday's action, teams, VIPs, LAYC members and invited guests enjoyed a dinner that included a visit from keynote speaker Roy P. Disney — the owner and skipper of Pyewacket is known within the sport as a yacht racing legend responsible for numerous record-breaking voyages.
Leading up to Disney's presentation were numerous protests submitted by various teams, inquiries that continuously affected the Harbor Cup's overall standings hours after the LAYC's dinner concluded.
Occupying fifth overall with two Sunday races remaining, the Keelhaulers were focused on climbing the Harbor Cup's leaderboard, and nearly accomplished this feat based on Sunday's quality of racing.
However, CSUM just ran out of time (and races, since the regatta's maximum number of races for the weekend is 10; a minimum of three is needed to declare this regatta official), which allowed College of Charleston to survive CSUM's late charge and remain in fourth overall.
Cal Poly, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Coast Guard and UC San Diego (the Tritons made their Harbor Cup debut this weekend) finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Harbor Cup weekend provided vital experience for Cal Maritime's offshore cadet-athletes since they will participate in the Pacific Cup, hosted by the Pacific Yacht Club in mid-July. This biannual race will pit the Keelhaulers against the world's top professional teams in this 2,000-plus-mile competition from San Francisco to Kaneohe, Hawai'i, on the island of Oahu.
As is the case when it competed in past Transpacific Yacht Races, another biannual offshore competition featuring the sport's elite professionals racing from Southern California to Honolulu, Cal Maritime is the only college crew participating in this summer's Pac Cup.
Sailing cadet-athletes who pull double-duty by competing for CSUM's dinghy team will enjoy a near-two-week hiatus before returning to action on March 23 at the PCCSC South Designate, hosted by USC at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach, California.
Cal Maritime Athletics would like to thank the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Yacht Club for supporting one of the premier annual offshore regattas in the nation, race officials and LAYC volunteers for lending their boats for visiting teams to use for lodging throughout the weekend, and everyone involved in creating the best possible race weekend experience for participating institutions and respective student-athletes.
Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup
March 8-10, 2024
San Pedro, Calif.
Port of Los Angeles — Pt. Fermin
Hosted by the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Yacht Club and Cal Maritime
Final Results
1. Maine Maritime 32
2. USC 39
3. Navy 41
4. College of Charleston 47
5. Cal Maritime* 53
6. Hawai'i* 53
7. Cal Poly 62
8. U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 70
9. Coast Guard 74
10. UC San Diego 78
NOTE: * – Head-to-head tiebreaker