Bissell Racing

This weekend was the Snipe District 6 Championship hosted by San Diego Yacht Club.  The race committee, along with a few of the participants, used this event to gear up for the World Championship that will take place in the same spot this September. 

Doug Hart mentioned before the skippers meeting that this was the deepest fleet he’s seen at a local event in a long time.  This had a lot to do with some very talented junior teams that made an appearance.  

The hot shot juniors included newly crowned collegiate All-American Tyler Sinks, the high school sailing standout with a strong sailing pedigree Nevin Snow, and a top Snipe sailor from the Biscayne Bay fleet who will compete in both the junior and senior World Championship this year Nick Voss.

The racing schedule called for 4 races on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.  If all six races were completed a throw-out would take effect.  Both days were picture perfect sailing conditions.  Saturday was sunny and probably averaged about 7 knots.  There were some big rolling swells but not much chop.  These standard San Diego conditions were ideal for the AP-5+ and BR1DH and it showed as we went 1,1,1,3. 

My crew Blaire Herron did an excellent job working the boat downwind and clearing the dagger board of seaweed.  The Seaweed was actually a huge factor In the racing since it was everywhere and just a little bit on either board would drastically slow you down.

I sailed on Sunday with my world’s crew Kate Sheahan who had flown in late Saturday night from Bermuda.  The breeze picked up a bit and averaged around 10 knots on the day.  Don Bedford, who missed day 1, came out of the gates hot and took the bullet in the first race.  Nick Voss charged ahead early and stayed there to win the final race of the regatta.  We finished 2^nd in both races to hang on to win the championship by 9 points over George Szabo.  Overall North Sails were 1,3,5,7,8 and 10 with the new AP-5+ main taking 1^st and 3^rd.