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Day 1 – March 16th, 2013

As teams registered for this year’s Gaucho Regatta online, there was no doubt that one question was on their mind.  Will it be like last year?  After the 2012 blowout where winds were gusting into the 30’s and sailors planed around the course all the while looking at snow capped mountains, there were some who hoped for more of the same and some who definitely did not.  The latter were the lucky ones as teams showed up on Day 1 of this year’s Gaucho to a benign south-easterly breeze and heavy fog.  In fact, the breeze was so benign that one could say it was non-existent at points.  And so early in the morning as boats sailed out in light winds, it slowly began to die to an eventual postponement.  A whale visited the drifting boats as the race committee waited for wind but to no avail; the on the water postponement turned into an on shore postponement.  Finally, a light southerly breeze picked up enough to get two races off for Gold and Silver A’s and B’s, but not enough to do much more than that.  The wind was not only light but extremely shifty, jumping 30+ degrees at a time.  The sailors who came out on top at the end of the day must be commended because not only are they great competitors, they had an uncanny ability to play huge shifts and read what was coming next.  At about 5pm when the wind died yet again, the RC called it quits and sent the sailors in to try again the next day.

Day 2 – March 17th, 2013

Optimistic Race Committee members and sailors woke to a break in the fog on Sunday which would hopefully bring a clearing breeze, but the fog began to slowly creep back in and take away hopes with it.  Once again, competitors sailed out to a dying breeze.  The pressure was on the Race Committee to get a few races off to officially call the event a regatta, but it was looking dismal until a very unusual Southeasterly breeze came slowly in.  At first it was extremely light and very shifty but then it picked up to about 5-7 knots at points; enough to squeeze the regatta in and a few extra races.  In total the Gold and Silver fleets completed five races for A’s and B’s.  The Gold unfortunately could not get a sixth race in as the time limit approached rapidly and while A’s had got the race in, B’s could not.  The breeze yet again on this day saw giant shifts of 30+ degrees and without a doubt the top teams must be congratulated.  The Point Loma JV1 team; led by Will La Dow (’14), Jennifer Johnson (’15), Trevor Hecht (’14) and Megan Landsdale (’16), showed extreme capability leading the first day and holding onto the lead sufficiently the second day to grab the hardware and the 2013 Gaucho Regatta win.  Congratulations to them and all sailors on surviving yet another Gaucho!

At the awards ceremony several catch phrases for the Gaucho Regatta were thrown around… "Gaucho Regatta; where is blows gnarly or hardly"…. "Taking into account last year’s conditions and this year’s conditions, the Gaucho Regatta averages 12-15 knots."…Got any good ones?  Email them to ucsbsailing@gmail.com.

Special thanks to RC members and UCSB Alumni Kent Pierce and Tedd White for donation of their personal boats and time.  Additional special thanks to the Shevitz family for use of their boat ‘Divecat’ for RC.  Finally, thank you to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, the Santa Barbara Youth Foundation and the UC Santa Barbara Sailing Team for helping put on a great event!