2003 Commodore's Cup

by VanFalk

Forty-five Star teams from fourteen nations showed up in Miami for the Commodore's Cup, the second event of the annual winter circuit. The event turned into a war of attrition with the winners surviving a slew of gear failures and a mass black flagging. The three race, no throw out format doesn't allow for any errors and many of the big names found themselves out of contention early.

Since the last event, more of the top international teams have relocated to Miami for the winter, including Ian Percy/Steve Mitchell who will be representing Britain in the Olympics, and Max Treacy/Anthony Shanks hoping to represent Ireland. All of the American hopefuls are now on hand in Miami including George Szabo and crew Mark Strube. This would also be the first regatta for Mark Reynolds with new crew Steve Erickson. Reynolds' former crew, Magnus Liljedahl, was making his debut with new skipper Andy Lovell.

Saturday looked to be an exciting day with the wind forecast to be 20+. Many of the older sailors were weary about sailing in the conditions so the RC set a triangle in deference to their concerns. Race 1 got off in about 18 knots of wind and Paul Cayard immediately showed why Saturdays must be school days in his world. Paul with crew Phil Trinter were launched off the line, and never looked back. By the first weather mark they held a huge lead over the rest of the fleet. Things were looking pretty good for the San Francisco teams as Peter Vessella and Brian Fatih moved into second on the first reach, with Percy/Mitchell coming on strong. On the second reach, Cayard managed to extend his lead on the fleet except for Percy/Mitchell who were flying and had moved into second. Coming into the leward mark, Cayard still had a large lead, but Percy had closed the gap and Vessella remained in third. Cayard sailed a loose cover on Percy on the next upwind leg, and at the weather mark the positions of the top boats were about the same. On the final run, Percy sailed as aggressively as he could to try to catch Cayard. Cayard chose not to place his equipment at risk and in exchange sacrificed some of his lead, but managed to sail across the finish in first by about five boat lengths. Percy was second, and Vessella third.

Max Treacy

The wind started to pick up for race 2 with gusts reaching 23 knots. The conditions were beyond the comfort range of several teams who chose to head home early. The RC again chose to use a triangle, this time with an upwind finish. Race 2 was Percy's turn to school the fleet. At the first weather mark he held a 20 boat length lead over the pack. Percy continued to extend his lead on each of the reaches and by the leward mark was untouchable. The fleet managed to close some the distance on the second upwind leg, but only a gear failure would keep Percy out of the noise. Percy again sailed very aggressively on the run and extended his lead even more - to about 1/3 of the length of the leg. In second place was the Danish team of Holm/Olesen and MacCausland/Nichol in third. Then it happened - about 3/4 of the way to the finish, Percy's forestay failed, forcing him to bear away to save the mast and knocking him out of the race. Holm would go on to win the race, MacCausland finished second, Mark Reynolds with Steve Erickson was third, Cayard was fourth, and Peter Bromby with Rick Peters was fifth. Howie Shiebler and Will Stout, who missed the first race due to a damaged spreader, managed to make it back to the racecourse for the second race, however they never had a chance to set up and finished ninth. Had Percy not broken his forestay, he would have had a two point lead over Cayard going into the third and final race, instead Cayard was in the controlling position with a two point lead over John MacCausland.

Percy/Mitchell were not the only top team to suffer a gear failure. Vessella/Fatih were forced to retire, as was the Dutch Olympic team. The Ukrainian team broke their mast at the leward mark creating an obstruction. George Szabo, who must have been confused and thought he was in his snipe, was trying to jib reach and consequently snapped his whisker pole in a spectacular fashion sending one of the pieces flying like an arrow about 50 yards. Three other boats, including Andy MacDonald with Austin Sperry, suffered the same failure as Percy. All of the boats breaking their forestays were new boats from Folli indicating that this was a manufacturing error.

Interestingly, one of the arguments Paul Henderson is making for dropping the throw-out race from the Olympics is that the teams that are properly prepared know their equipment and wont suffer from these problems. With that in mind, Percy and Mitchell's failure show how that is a false argument. Of all the teams, the Brits are the most professional and the best prepared. If there were anyone who should benefit from this rule change, it would be them, yet they have been the most vocal against it. In the real world, things fail and the impossible happens, such as blowing apart a forestay, which is unheard of in the Star class. No amount of preparation can prepare for these events and the team shouldn't be punished for them.

Reynolds, bromby, Cayard

After the carnage of Saturday, many teams were hoping for a mellower day on Sunday. For a while it looked like the fleet was going to get more of the same, but the forecast breeze never materialized and sailing commenced in a very civilized 12 knots. Free of concerns for the safety of the fleet, the RC put the triangles to bed and set up a five-leg windward leward course. The starting sequence began on time, but 20 boats, having misjudged the amount of wind, had yet to arrive in the racing area. Luckily for the stragglers, the pin end of the line was heavily biased and the ensuing fight for a pin end start resulted in a general recall. This gave the stragglers enough time to make the second start, which also resulted in a general recall because the pin end was still heavily biased. The RC, were tired of playing around and set the black flag for the third start. While the RC were determined that the third attempt would be the last, the problem was that the pin end was still biased and nine boats, 1/4 of the starters found themselves BFD.

Once underway, most of the top guys hit the left side of the course where there was better pressure, but when the fleet converged at the weather mark, George Szabo and Mark Strube came out of the middle to lead Cayard and Percy by five boat lengths. Howie Shiebler rounded the top mark deep in the fleet. Szabo managed to hold off Cayard and Percy on the run, but Shiebler started making a move picking up about ten boats. By the second weather mark the top three or four boats were all holding steady, but Shiebler had moved into the top 10 continued to pick up boats on the last run. Most of the teams hit the left on the last beat, with Shiebler taking a flyer to the right. The right was the way to go and when the leaders converged at the finish, Szabo was barely able to hold on and beat Shiebler by a few inches. Percy passed Cayard on the last beat to finish third, with Cayard fourth.

George Szabo Leading

Had Percy not broken down, this would have been his regatta, beating Cayard by three points. Believing that Cayard had won the regatta many sailors were shocked to find that he had been one of the nine boats black-flagged. Instead this would be John MacCausland's day. Johnny Mac benefited from Percy, Cayard, and Shiebler's misfortune and won the regatta with finishes of 5-2-10. Second place would go to Spitzauer/Hanakamp from Austria, and third to Peter Bromby and Rick Peters. The top master was Larry Whipple and Darin Jensen from Seattle.

With five more events before the US Trials, Paul Cayard and Howie Shiebler seem to be in the driver's seat. They are clearly the top two US teams right now. However, no one is counting out Reynolds, who has a history of peaking at the Trials. Interestingly, both Shiebler and Cayard are from the San Francisco fleet, marking, at least for now, and end to the dominance of the San Diego based teams.