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NorCal Champs – Video
Category: Regatta Report
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NorCal Champs – 2026
Santa Cruz Yacht Club just hosted the International 14ft Skiff Norcal Championship on June 6-7th. Conditions were epic with 18-25kts+ on Saturday and 15-20kts on Sunday. The fleet of 11 boats was challenged with keeping the bow from digging and the stick in the air in sizable ocean swell just outside Steamer Lane. Needless to say, even the most experienced teams in the fleet had their fair share of getting rag dolled around the forestay.
Friday a few boats went out for a practice sail, but the night really kicked off the killer event with a BBQ at Mikey Radziejowski (commonly known as Polish)’s house, just blocks from the harbor. The USA I14 fleet is a tight knit group of enthusiasts, who take pride in their rigging and composite work as well as their beer consumption. Friday night was no different than most, foils freshly wet sanded, and a good few beers shared around the fire pit.
Saturday morning teams rigged up, anxious for the 12:55 start with a big forecast headed our way. The first race had a competitive start, sail #1206, John Clark and JV Gilmore, won the pin end closely followed by 1200, Brad Reutenik and JP Barnes. Up the course breeze built to a steady 20kts+ and by the top mark rounding, more than half the fleet was upside down and unable to finish. 1202, Michael Pacholski and myself, rounded first, closely followed by 1204, Polish and Evan Sjostedt. Both boats sent it hard on the downwind leg hitting 18kts+ before gybing on layline around the mile buoy. On the second upwind Polish and Evan overtook 1202 and held onto their lead with some expertly executed heavy air gybes on the second downwind to the finish. 1200, Reutenik and Barnes rounded out the top 3 after battling back from an early capsize. The first race set the tone for the regatta, 1204 clearly has big pace and experience in big breeze. Honorable mention to AUS 681, Cameron Puckey and Max Roth as well as 1177, Daniel Roberts and Marcos McGee for finishing while the rest of the fleet called it for the day.
Race two saw 28kts at the windward mark which made the bare aways feel like the old days before T-foils. Only 4 boats finished after multiple capsizes for each team. Again 1204 got the 1, 1202 2nd, 1200 3rd and honorable mention to 1198, James Clarkson and Mehmet Gunay, for sticking it out and finishing 4th. Huge thank you to the SCYC support boats for helping out boats with break downs and getting everyone in safe.
Saturday night SCYC hosted an awesome taco dinner before teams made their way down the street to the other yacht club. If you’ve never sailed in Santa Cruz, you’ve probably never been Brady’s Yacht Club, where most regatta nights end. In classic 14 fashion, the fleet numbed their bruises with a few drinks and shared stories from the day.
Sunday morning, Race Committee opted to move up racing by an hour to try to get some good competitive races off before breeze built too much. We had 3 epic races in spectacular conditions. The term champagne sailing doesn’t quite work in a skiff, but Sunday was the closest thing to it. 12-15kts in the first race built to 15-20kts in the latter two along with ocean swell gave the whole fleet the buzz we’ve all been chasing. The more manageable conditions meant tight racing. More often than not, 4 or 5 boats were getting to the top mark all in a line and setting simultaneously for the glamor runs.
1204 Mikey and Evan proved themselves this regatta with a picket fence, 1,1,1,1,1, and set the tone for the rest of the fleet. We have got some work to do in big breeze to catch those guys. Huge thank you to all of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club volunteers for hosting an incredible regatta. Safe to say we are all looking forward to the next one here in Santa Cruz!
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Spring Dinghy – 2026
San Diego Spring Dinghy Regatta and West Coast Championships Trophy — 2026
I am writing this page after recovering from a long trip and gas prices with two boats from Seattle to San Diego.
The first thing to mention is to congratulate the two i14 sailors who received the call to go to Sydney Harbor and race the 18-footer World Championships! Good on “ya” Polish and Daniel “AKA” Sid Vicious Roberts representing the USA!
The heat wave in San Diego created mostly light wind. It was a 3-day regatta. After the first day three teams were tied for first; Kris Henderson, Matt Megla and Channing Hamlet.
Saturday racing brought out more sailors and the wind picked up to 6-10 knots. We had two short races and the famous long-distance race, parading up and down the San Diego Harbor. Terry Gleeson owned the day. Jack Lugliana came down from San Francisco to sail his first i14 regatta. We came in second and Matt Megla and crew came in third.
It was close racing with tight points together for the Sunday racing. Matt on top with 9 points, Hendo 10 points and Terry with 11, Cameron Puckey and Channing Hamlet finished some seconds and thirds.
Everyone sailed well and with close racing. Sunday the wind was light. Hendo led the first race till the final run. Jousting with Terry allowed Michael Lazarro to concentrate on sailing and he took the race, good sailing. The last two races the wind filled in and Terry took that advantage and got two bullets to win the regatta.
Brad Ruetenik had other obligations so no sailing but instead took out his power boat to take some amazing photos and videos of every boat. This was a tremendous help to everyone, and thanks to coach Brad everyone was sailing better on Sunday. Thank you to the race committee at Coronado Yacht Club for running a great regatta and setting perfect courses.
Terry Gleeson/16 Points
Kris Henderson/20 Points
Michael Lazarro with a 1,2,3 on the last day finished 3rd with 24 points
Channing Hamlet/26 Points
Matt Melga/28 Points
Cameron Puckey/29 Points
Close racing, good fun! See you at the next one!
Cheers
Kris Henderson
By Terry Gleeson
The Southern California I14 Fleet has 2 Season Championships trophies: The W.D. Schock Trophy for the best SoCal boat that season and the M.O.B. Trophy for the best crew… Why 2 trophies? Because no one does this alone!
These were inactive for many years but they were unearthed from the bowels of ABYC by Dr Brad and likely others about 12 years ago. At that time, I volunteered to set up a season long scoring system to get these trophies active again, we looked at a number of scoring methods and there were lots of pros and cons of each. After some discussion and beers, it was agreed to use a ‘high point’ scoring method… and it’s a combo of the following:
Best 51% of local regatta points + Best 51% of Championship regatta points.
To get the trophies active again, we reached back to 2011, and I scored all the seasons from 2011 on forward through 2025 using this agreed upon method. A lot of time and effort for sure. 2020 and 2021 were a bust from a season perspective and we then had to go back and look at 2019, and we just had enough data to score it.
All that said, after a few years of YC’s misplacing the trophies, we are again so pleased that we have found the trophies, thanks to efforts from Brad, Garrett, Paul, Michael Leitch and anyone else I may have missed.
With the trophies missing the last few years, we haven’t seen these results… so we’ve done some calcs and here are all the winners for the last three seasons and the rest down below.
Big congrats to:
- 2025 SoCal Season Champ Winners: Brad Reutenik and JP Barnes
- 2024 SoCal Season Champ Winners: Michael Pacholski and Patrick Wilkinson
- 2023 SoCal Season Champ Winners: Garrett Brown, Kate Shaner, and Morgan Pinckney
So Cal Season Championship Winners 2011-2025:
- 2011: Paul Galvez Guillo LeondeBarra
- 2012: Brad Reutenik Patrick Murray
- 2013: Dave Hayter Trent Neighbor
- 2014: Brad Reutenik Patrick Murray / Jake Sorosky
- 2015: Terry Gleeson Evan Sjostedt
- 2016: Terry Gleeson Evan Sjostedt
- 2017: Terry Gleeson Patrick Powell / JP Barnes / Ian Furlong
- 2018: Brad Reutenik Garrett Brown
- 2019: Ted Conrads Brian Haines / Jake Sorosky
- 2022: Brad Reutenik Garrett Brown
- 2023: Garrett Brown Pinckney / Shaner
- 2024: Michael Pacholski Patrick Wilkinson
- 2025: Brad Reutenik JP Barnes
Methodology:
For those not familiar with this Hi Point scoring method, for each race, it counts how many boats a team beat in that race: If it was a 5 boat race, and you got 1st place… you get 5 points. If you got last, you get 1 point. If it was a 12 boat race and you were 3rd… you get 10 points (beat 9 boats + get a point for showing up). It values the total number of boats you beat that year across all of your races. We use 51% of your Best Scores so it includes more boats that may not do all the events, has some leeway, but still encourages participation and highlights top racing.
For the Season Championships we utilize a combo of each teams scores:
Best 51% of local regatta points + Best 51% of Championship regatta points.
The team with most points wins, tiebreakers go to total score (100% of scores – and yes, we’ve had to use the tiebreakers before!)
Notes:
1. We do not include any Worlds racing in the scoring. (skews data considerably)
2. Data: I’ll work with James to post the spreadsheets (all 14 of them) if anyone would like to review the data or see how they scored.
FAQs:
Why High Point, why not just count how many 1sts, 2nds, etc…?
High Point system awards more value for beating more boats. Getting 1st in a 10 boat race essentially has twice the value of getting 1st in a 5 boat race.
Why 51% and how does that work? Why not 100%?
We could certainly use a different percentage (60 or 70%?). Using a % (such as 51%) doesn’t hurt a team for having breakdowns, or not making it to every single regatta due to work, life, vacations outside of sailing, or other commitments. If we were to use 100%, then it becomes mostly a participation contest and may not show who was the best that season, but more of who participated the most (maybe that is a different trophy?)
Why a combo between Championship and Local regattas?
The Championship regattas (Nationals, North Americans, PacRims) are much better attended and thus have higher scores (e.g. beating 15 boats vs just beating 5). This sways the results quite a bit and then a team can win the season trophy by only doing the championship regattas and none of the local regattas. The combo promotes participation and consistently good sailing.
Categories
Turkey Day – 2025
This year’s Turkey Day Regatta, hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, saw a solid turn out of 10 boats, 6 from Northern California, and the rest from the Southern California Fleet. The fleet was greeted to unsettled cloud cover, intermittent rain showers, and the smell of Turkeys smoking in the parking lot. The event was well attended by many classes and the boat park was buzzing with over 156 boats. The club did a great job of organizing the chaos, and even assigned classes to their own rigging areas – not that the 14s don’t already congregate like the cult it is.
Saturday’s unsettled weather meant winds were light and shifty. The Fleet managed to only get one race off after a postponement. Evan and I managed to get off the start line in somewhat of a clear lane leading off to the left side of the course. A header sent us back, sailing from puff to puff. The few boats that ate further into the header off the line seemed to benefit the most with Michael Leitch on 1195 with Terry Gleeson guest helming (while Elizabeth grows a future World Champion) leading the pack into the weather mark. Michael Lazzaro on 1161 and Brad Ruetenick on 1200 were right behind from the left side of the course. Evan and I on 1204, and Cameron Puckey with new crew Max Roth on AUS 681, managed to hold our own and just squeak in front of Michael Lazzaro around the top mark. Downwind wasn’t immediately obvious but we chose to gybe out early which paid off as the folks who dug into the right side hit a wall. From there it was just a matter of keeping the boat moving.Terry and Michael did a great job of staying in the puffs and held on to their lead. The second lap around the course was more or less a repeat of the first, with folks just trying to stay in whatever little micro puff they were in. Sailing these boats in such light conditions is a true test of your focus and flexibility as you attempt to make yourself into the smallest, most uncomfortable ball possible. The race ended with Terry and Michael taking 1st, us in second, and Puckey closely behind us, though the rest of the fleet wasn’t too far behind. Unfortunately, the wind completely shut off and we were all sent in.
Saturday night, ABYC hosted its catered Thanksgiving dinner, and the food was phenomenal! Smoked turkey and all the fixins. It was a great opportunity for the fleet to catch up and mingle. Afterwards, a bunch of the 14ers found themselves at a very solid dive bar in San Pedro where further “debriefing” happened.
We were greeted to beautiful clear skies and warm weather Sunday morning, which meant more normal wind conditions for November. A solid 6 to 10 knots meant we were able to get 3 quick double lap races and a 4th race with a single windward-leeward. There were still some big shifts on the race course that required some vigilance, which made for some good tactical racing. The first race saw a big shift right at the start which made getting across the line difficult. We set up for the mid to pin end of the line (which happened to be the committee boat) and the boats that set further towards the pin ended up piling up with a capsize. It was ugly and to avoid the mess we managed to sail over the line early. Nothing like immediately starting at the back of the pack. We had a good beat but really gained back on the first mark rounding and doing an immediate gybe set allowing us to go from DFL to finishing 5th. Brad and JP walked away with it even though they, too, piled up at the start. 1202 with guest helm Chris Hendo and Patrick Wilkinson got 2nd, and Puckey rounded out the podium.
Race 2 we had a little redemption with a good start leading out to the left hand side with Brad, only to blow it right before a tack due to a miscommunicated mainsheet pass that caused us to go for a swim. But again, we sailed really smart and ended up in 4th. Brad once again took the win, followed by Hendo and Pat, and Puckey in 3rd. The next race was a mirror in conditions and shifts so we managed to repeat our strategy which paid dividends. We sailed smartly and kept the boat upright. We also had a smart gybe which allowed us to get in front of Puckey right before the finish allowing us to get 2nd. Brad and JP once again showed us how it’s done in tricky light air conditions and won by a good margin. The last race of the day was the sprint and we took a gamble on which side of the course was going to pay off on the upwind. We didn’t do terrible, but we didn’t do great either, so we had to settle with a 4th. Should not come as a shock, but Dr Brad and JP finished the day with a perfect score sheet. A little shake up and Terry and Michael got 2nd, and Mike Lazzaro and Robin Kivlen got 3rd. Both boats made huge gains hitting the left side of the course on the upwind.
A huge congratulations to Brad and JP! They are very hard to beat in these light conditions. Consistently fast and smart. They took the prized turkey home. Evan and I were pleasantly surprised with 2nd. We struggle in conditions like these, but as everyone knows, you can’t always sail at the Gorge or Berkeley Circle, so this was a huge learning weekend for us. Puckey and Max took 3rd, though they did tie with us after the throw out. Puckey as always, sailed very fast and was consistent. It felt like he was always right next to us. I also should say that the rest of the fleet was right there. I am seriously impressed with the entire fleet. We have come a long way as a fleet and there is no longer an “A” and “B” fleet. There were many lead changes over the weekend and almost no waiting between races. It’s awesome! I also have to shout out our newest boat to the fleet with Lucca Farrell and Gabriel Rios on their Bieker 3. These guys are new but they are already proving themselves by finding themselves in the front of the fleet at times. Looking forward to seeing those guys grow.
All in all, it was another fantastic 14 event. ABYC did a great job hosting. The fleet comradery was all time and the stoke was high. Now is the best time to be in the fleet, so get your boat out on the water or reach out to us if you want to join! Next up on the calendar is Richmond Yacht Club Small Boat Midwinters.
Remember, “Imitations come and go, but 14s are forever!”
-Mikey Radziejowski
USA 1204
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Nationals – 2025
Cascade Locks, Oregon
July 25-27, 2025
This year, US Nationals was held at the Gorge. It’s been a while since we’ve been here, and it lived up to the expectations set by every past event held at this incredible venue.
It was a lightly registered and attended event — 9 boats registered, 8 attended. Maybe the threat of sailing in mid-20s breeze was a deterrent for most. But those who did attend had a blast and enjoyed everything the Gorge threw at us.
The plan for Friday’s racing was an initial “warm-up” race, followed by the long-distance race. The breeze was already well into the upper teens, with expectations that it would continue building. The race committee (RC) ultimately chose to skip the warm-up and go straight to the distance race. There was some initial discussion about moving it to a different day, but the forecast for the next two days was about the same. The Melges and 505s joined us for the distance race. Although we were originally scheduled for the first start, we requested to be third to give us more time to reach the line.
The race began well for the many boats that started, with most making it to the weather mark — led by 1204, followed by 1159, with 1206 and 1198 rounding a bit further back. It thinned out from there. 1204 and 1206 exchanged places a couple of times. At one point, 1206 ran into a kelp patch and ended up dragging 50 lbs of weed on both the centerboard and rudder, requiring a forced upwind capsize to clear it. The race came down to the long downwind leg to the distant leeward mark. In the far left corner, 1204 got caught up with the Melges and stuffed it with the kite up. Meanwhile, 1206 had a smooth downwind, choosing to sit in about three-quarters of the way down to maintain stability and keep the boat upright. 1206 doused and two-sail jibed around the leeward mark, then headed on the long upwind beat to the finish, followed at a distance by 1204. Rounding out the only other boat to finish was 1198. Kudos to everyone who attempted the race, and congrats to 1206 for pulling off a great distance race win to open the regatta.
Saturday brought the strongest breeze of the weekend, with five races scheduled. We ended up doing only two, mostly due to sitting around for an hour between each race, trying to save energy and keep the boat upright. The racing was exciting. All boats started on a standard starboard tack, but 1206 opted for a port tack start, believing the current and breeze made it favorable — despite the worse chop. This required ducking 1204 and 1198, but they hit the line with speed. The racing was intense, with 1204 and 1206 again trading positions around the course. In the end, 1204 edged out 1206, taking the win in both races — but it was oh so close. 1159 followed with third in each race, and 1198 brought up the rear, finishing both races as well.
Sunday started a bit lighter (by Gorge standards) but built to a solid breeze for Race 3 and eased slightly for Race 4. 1204 continued their success from Saturday by taking the first race of the day, followed closely by 1206. Five more boats successfully finished, making for a strong start. 1206, tired of near misses after their distance race win, came out firing for the next two races, swapping places with 1204. Seven boats finished Race 2, and five finished Race 3. The regatta was tied after six races, with 1206 leading on countback. But it felt wrong to have just six races for Nationals, so — without hesitation — those still on the course voted for a fourth race of the day: the regatta decider.
Racing was neck and neck until 1206 botched a jibe near the port gate rounding, leading to the reaching mark. This gave 1204 a nice buffer on the final reach, leeward, and windward legs. 1202 passed 1206 while they were recovering, only to stuff their own jibe. 1206 recovered and finished second, followed by 1198, with 1202 closing out the regatta.
Congratulations to 1206 (Clark and McDonald) for winning the distance race. And congratulations to 1204 (Radziejowski and Sjostedt) for winning the Nationals. I rave about Huntington, but the Gorge is even better. I’d even say it’s likely better than Garda. We’re lucky to have such a venue so close. Even Cam McDonald (thanks for coming all the way from Australia to race!) commented on how ridiculously good it is. I’m sure he’ll want to be back.
-John Clark, USA 1206
Categories
Pac Rims – 2025
Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
April 24-27, 2025
Thursday kicked off the event with light and shifty breeze. We saw every direction in the bay beginning with light trades, shifting north, then shifting west before the sustained southerly for the sail in. Multiple races gave us 180º shifts and large holes in the course. This proved to be very tricky and somewhat up to chance keeping the top 5 all within a few points. The race committee did an excellent job to get 3 races in with the little breeze we had. After racing some of the fleet joined in for the Thursday night bulkhead race and a classic KYC night at the bar.
Friday the fleet was welcomed with 8-12kt tradewinds bringing the top speeds of the event. Mikey Radziejowski and Evan Sjostedt put on a masterclass in the fresh breeze with a 1,1,3, DNF (disappearing tiller issue while leading the race).
Friday night the fleet was invited for a BBQ at the hilltop house in Lanikai which is a historical home filled with surf and sailing memorabilia including the original Transpac Trophy from 1906!
Saturday kicked off with our youth i14 clinic where we showed off the boats. The beautiful light wind morning allowed us to take some incredibly talented and stoked young kids for a rip! Racing begun at 2pm with light 6-10kt tradewinds dying to a very light 3-6kt final race.
Congratulations to Brad Ruetenik and JP Barnes in single spreader B6 1200 “Astragulus Too” for an expertly sailed regatta in a challenging variety of conditions. Michael Pacholski and I took 2nd in double spreader B6 1202 “Blue Balls” followed by Channing Hamlet and Paul Allen in the single spreader red B6 1193. The whole fleet is improving with the top 8 boats winning races throughout the regatta.
In the classics fleet, we had a close battle with 6 boats with old style rigs with upper shrouds to the mast. Congratulations to Gavin Ball and Zach Severson for taking the win in a freshly renamed B5 1167 “One Ball” run up by Maddy Kennedy and Mackenzie Cook in B3 1176 “Miss Match” and Pearl Lattanzi and Aaron Tsuchitori taking third in the B3 1187 “Nanotek”.
Sundays Hawaii State Championship distance race found light conditions and had to be modified to a bay tour. It was a reverse order start pursuit race beginning at the launch ramp, out the south channel around F buoy to starboard, E to port, RG to starboard, A to starboard, in the south channel to the finish. Congratulations to Gavin Ball and Zach Severson for crushing it in the light breeze and bringing home the gold. Runner ups Kristian Henderson and Martin Fabiansson from Sweden in 1192 “Bondage” followed by John Clark and Eike Ehrig from the German fleet in the new Ovington B6 120 6 “Amused”.
-Patrick Wilkinson, USA 1202
Categories
Worlds – 2024
World Championships – 2024
Circolo vela Torbole
August 2-9, 2024
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The 2024 International 14 World Championships were held on Lake Garda in Torbole Italy. Torbole is next door to the better known Riva Del Garda. Both clubs sail on the same water which is on most all sailors bucket list of locations to sail, certainly in the skiff sailing crowd. Seventy boats from six different countries were present. The always strong GBR (18) and AUS (14) teams were both well represented. The up and coming GER (20) team have the biggest, and youngest, fleet in the world and are very inspiring to meet and see how they are getting young recently graduated university sailors involved by purchasing second and third hand boats from the UK fleet and having wild social events which stimulates even more interest in the younger sailors who are looking for challenging and fun sailing. The lone ITA (1) boat is usually sailed in the UK and has an Italian female crew. The CAN (5) team has 3 recently built Ovington Bieker 6 boats which have been living in the UK doing European events over this past year, an additional 2 boats were Ro-Ro’d from Halifax. The USA (11) sent 8 boats in a 40’ container from the west coast. Two additional USA boats have been staying in GER and being sailed in European events. An additional new Ovington built B6 was delivered to Torbole for this event and is making the return trip in the US container. There were 7 female helms, and 6 female crew.
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
Lake Garda is a very unique place to sail. The typical day starts with an early morning northerly breeze, the “Pella”, which is a draining breeze from the surrounding mountains. The Italian Dolomites are just north of the area. This allows early morning kite, wing and sailboarding sessions which can have hundreds of boards on the water between 0600-1000. This breeze gradually decreases usually around 1000 and the thermals start to kick in. Almost like clock work, between 1000-1200 the southerly “Ora” starts to build which by 1300 is often 10-15 and continues to build to 15-20 with occasional 20+ puffs. There are occasional afternoon thunderstorms which can bring in some serious weather. Reminded me of growing up sailing on the Great Lakes. We experienced one during the later race days where several boats were flattened by the 30-40 kt. puffs and needed to stay over through the squalls with thunder, lightning and hail. All boats were either retrieved by RIBs and volunteer sailors or self rescued after the 30-45 min. storm front.
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The racing started with the traditional Team Racing Championships which has been an important as well as fun event during the 14 Worlds. The Team racing was The World Championship up until 1979 when the first Individual World Champions were crowned. International 14 team racing is 4 on 4 team racing on a digital ’N’ course. All the same team racing rules apply with different combinations due to being 4×4, this makes for interesting racing with Kites being used on these high speed skiffs. Quick decisions have to be made and boat handling is at a premium. Unfortunately, the USA did not field a team for the team racing event this year. The GBR team defeated the AUS team after two long days of racing. That leads to one of the most anticipated evenings of the whole World Championship event, “The Team Racing Party”. Each country involved presents a skit, and the stories that come from this evening are legendary! I’ll leave those stories for the bar.
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The following day was the I-14 Lake Garda Traditional “Bastardo Cup” race. This event has taken place historically at all Lake Garda prior 14 events and the course is usually announced at the “Ora Bar” at midnight the night prior to the race by the prior winner. He makes up the rules and course with the “winner” getting rewarded the ‘Bastardo Cup” which is a bronze boot which when turned upside down is filled with a liter of Grappa and the winner and crew must drink the Grappa, or find additional willing participants. There is also a $500 euro penalty if they do not show up for the next event to defend their cup. This year’s course involved having the boat on it’s side with mast in the water behind the starting line when the start gun goes off. Sailing across Lake Garda to a sailing club a few miles up the lake. Adjacent to the club there are “some swimming bouys along the edge” which the crew must touch and then sail back to the finish. Needless to say, it is / was a fun race and thankfully we started early so were determined to be OCS and our finishing first was not counted “Thankfully”. Avoided that Grappa at least!
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The following day was the “Practice Race’ which is a good warm up for several of the sailors as well as the RC. I-14s sail windward / leeward with triangle courses. The triangles are usually offset so as to require a high reach mark. This is what limits the size of the kites as the 25’ rig with 9’ bow sprit can carry an unlimited size kite. However, you can only measure in one kite. Kinda tough to change from an A2 runner to an A3 reaching kite between legs. The RC boat set up per usual. We asked how deep they were setting in and they answered 250 Meters, this is close to 800 feet of water. So once they are set, they aren’t moving. The Pin is a RIB with and small electric trolling motor which is set to maintain station via GPS coordinates. They now use ‘Mark Bots” for weather, reach and leeward marks which allows the RC to set a more normal course vs. previously having several marks using fixed mark mooring lines. The RC did set nice square lines with a large enough line to accommodate 70 boats. With that large of a line it is common for many, if not most, competitors to use electronics to ping the boat and pin, thus the midline sag of the past has been largely eliminated. The race goal is 90 min. for the winning boats which is usually an 18-20 mile race with one race per day.
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The North Lake Garda course is unfortunately a very one sided track as the southerly Ora breeze comes in predictably every day around 1200-1300. It gradually builds to 15-20 with occasional 20+ puffs. The breeze is significantly stronger along the right hand side of the course along the steep walls of the lake. Most places you can almost sail up and touch the wall prior to running out of water. As you sail here more you learn how favored it is and learn to get to the right hand side ASAP and short tack only a few hundred meters out into the lake prior to getting back to the wall. More pressure as well as a knock leading into the wall with some lift coming back out. The first few races as we sailed towards the middle of the lake we started sailing into a nice left handed shift, sailed into it a ways, tacked back on a nice lift only to see the boats that we sailed away from on the right gain 100m without the shift, but more pressure along the wall. This made for an almost obligatory Gybe set after the weather clearing mark on the first windward/leeward lap. Sprint back to the wall and get more pressure to get you down the course until you are going to gybe out to get to the leeward mark. Same situation on lap two, get to the wall and short tack until you can lay the weather mark again. There was often a knock as you came out into mid lake, so you learned to slightly overstand so you could maintain pace getting across to the weather mark again. Going down the left had side of the course to get to the reach mark was a little more tricky as there was usually some left breeze as previously noted, but this was usually lighter and puffy. Sometimes you would get a good left hand puff which would take you down below the reach mark, other times it was light and you had to reach up or Gybe out. Makes you learn to shift gears quickly and learn to reach with the kite up which seems to be a lost art with all the windward / leeward racing done these days. On occasions you can’t lay the reach mark and have to drop and two sail to the mark, reset and gybe or gybe set to the leeward mark. Lots of boat handling needed. The difficulty with this race track being so one sided, was if you didn’t get off the line or maintain a really good lane you are screwed as there are very few passing lanes. You can sail through some of the bottom of the fleet, but when you get to mid fleet or above those boats aren’t making the mistakes and everyone has good boat speed. The start became more challenging as many of the fleet started trying port tack starts and eliminate one tack. Talk about ‘danger zone’ in a 70 boat fleet. There were several repeat offenders with port tack fouls, the difficulty for the right of way starboard tackers was the port taker can foul you, do a single turn and still be way better off than fighting for a spot on starboard tack. Several boats were in the protest room repeatedly and got away with multiple fouls by “doing a turn”
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
After one of these incidents occurring to us and having the protest disallowed because they “did their turn” We decided to go the pin end and make several of the port tackers duck us which allowed us to get and maintain a better lane. With this technique and “winning the pin” the last two days of racing we had our best results with a 14 and 21 in the last two races. Our boat handling was very good throughout the week, only one capsize due to a slip during a gybe. Or difficulty is not sailing against other good/fast boat consistently. We found we were sailing too fast uphill and needed to slow the pace down to 9.3-9.7 uphill to improve our point and maintain better lanes. Our downwind speed and depth continued to be good.
I had hoped for a top 20 finish, we ended up 26th out of 70 boats. We finished as the top US boat and 2nd North American boat. A bit disappointed in our early week, poorer results, but we did learn a lot and improved throughout the week.
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
The next Worlds will be in Kingston, Ont. CAN in 2026 on the same waters as the 1976 Montreal Olympics were sailed. It is a beautiful area to sail as we were there for North Americans last summer. The following Worlds with be either at Black Rock in Melbourne AUS, or in Adelaide, in South AUS Dec/Jan 2028. There was some discussion about the 2029 worlds being back in the US and several discussions were had re: a possible San Diego Event as the worlds have previously been at St. Francis, Richmond x2, ABYC x2.
Respectfully,
Brad Ruetenik, DPM
Brad Ruetenik, DPM
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Gleb Turchinovich Gleb.Turchinovich@gmail.com
Categories
Nationals – 2024
National Champs – 2024
Richmond Yacht Club May 17-19, 2024
The third weekend in May saw the US International 14 fleet converge on the Richmond Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay for the 2024 I-14 US Nationals regatta. RYC and its ideal location on the world-famous Berkely Circle was the perfect big-air venue for teams from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Hawaii to train and compete in three days of fleet racing and one long-distance race, building towards competing in the 2024 World Championships in Lago Di Garda, Italy.
Day 1 race 1 was a short W/L course on the north end of the Berkely Circle in a building 10-15kts of breeze before the fleet was sent off on a 15 nautical mile distance race (scored as race 2 in the regatta results) from near the breakwater in Richmond, east of Angel Island, on a broad two-sail reach through the big wind and waves between Alcatraz and the San Francisco cityfront before turning upwind to the famous Blackaller buoy in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, then turning downwind, hoisting and racing back across the Golden Gate through Racoon Straight north of Angel Island and back to Richmond to finish. Those who survived the dreaded two-sail reach in the 15-20kts of breeze through “the slot” and up the big flood-tide induced rollers up the cityfront were rewarded with a scenic downwind slalom course where the wind followed the tide all the way to the finish. Congrats to Evan Sjostedt and Mikey “Polish” Radziejowski on their distance race win.
Saturday’s fleet racing was in a solid 15kts of breeze in the northern part of the Berkely Circle, with winds gusting well into to the low 20’s. The big breeze and short chop put a premium on boat handling and upwind speed, and the tight courses saw a lot of lead changes across the day’s three races. With a deadline to pack the boats and ship them to Italy for the Worlds looming, several boats took a conservative approach and retired early to avoid breakdowns that could jeopardize their Worlds run, highlighting multidimensional sailing and boat design challenge that is I14 racing. With a 2-1-1 scoreline on day 2, Michael Pacholski and Patrick Wilkinson put on a convincing performance, particularly given their relatively short time in the fleet and in a relatively new-to-them boat. Keep an eye on these guys.
Sunday’s racing was relatively milder, with 2 races on the northern part of the Berkely Circle in “only” 12-18kts of breeze. A 2-4 finish on day 3 for Pacholski/Wilkinson was enough to hold onto the lead with an untouchable 10pts across 7 races for First Place overall and a clinch of title of 2024 International 14 US National Champions. Local rivals Kirk Twardowski and Matt Skafel battled John Clark and Hoel Menard for the remaining podium slots, ending the regatta tied with 15 points each. In the end, it was Twardowski/Skafel’s two first place race finishes to Clark/Menard’s one that clinched second place for Twardowski/Skafel on the countback, with Clark/Menard finishing third.
Twardowski/Skafel were also winners of the Eric Arens trophy for the top finish from a boat whose combined age was greater than 100 years. Liz Campbell took home the trophy for the top women’s finish, having crewed partner Michael Leitch around the challenging course. Marcos McGee and Sam Normington earned the Avenger Trophy for the top finish from a prior-generation boat design.
Sunday’s racing was relatively milder, with 2 races on the northern part of the Berkely Circle in “only” 12-18kts of breeze. A 2-4 finish on day 3 for Pacholski/Wilkinson was enough to hold onto the lead with an untouchable 10pts across 7 races for First Place overall and a clinch of title of 2024 International 14 US National Champions. Local rivals Kirk Twardowski and Matt Skafel battled John Clark and Hoel Menard for the remaining podium slots, ending the regatta tied with 15 points each. In the end, it was Twardowski/Skafel’s two first place race finishes to Clark/Menard’s one that clinched second place for Twardowski/Skafel on the countback, with Clark/Menard finishing third.
Twardowski/Skafel were also winners of the Eric Arens trophy for the top finish from a boat whose combined age was greater than 100 years. Liz Campbell took home the trophy for the top women’s finish, having crewed partner Michael Leitch around the challenging course. Marcos McGee and Sam Normington earned the Avenger Trophy for the top finish from a prior-generation boat design.
Next stop, Lago di Garda Italy, where more than half of the Nationals competitors will be on the line for the 2024 International 14 World Championships, with fleet racing running from August 2nd to 9th.
-MS
Categories
Turkey Day – 2023
ABYC Turkey Day regatta 2023
Nov 18-19, 2023
Seven International 14s came to ABYC for the annual Turkey Day Regatta this past weekend. We had a good showing from all of the California 14 locations. The Nor Cal guys sent 4 boats down including new owners Patrick and Andrew Wilkinson. Patrick recently moved back to CA from HI where he finished school at UH and was sailing with the Hi 14 fleet for the last few yrs. He is now living in Santa Cruz. His Older Brother Andrew has been down in San Diego for a few yrs. Andrew came to our I-14 skiff clinic last year and has been sailing the boats of and on since. They bought USA 1202 another B6, the #2 and #10 pool ball boat, guess what color those balls are and you can figure out the name of the boat! Welcome to the fleet guys! John Clark and Hoel Menard came down with 1199 a B6, James Clarkson and Mehmet Gunay in 1198 and Holum, and Cam Puckey with /Aiden Mobley were in AUS 681 another Holum design. LA was represented by Paul Galvez and Dan Roberts in the B5 1168 with and new ICE stiff double spreader rig they just got into the boat. San Diego boats Terry Gleason sailing with Mickey “Polish” Radziejowski were sailing 1207 another Holum, and Brad Ruetenik and JP Barnes in 1200 another B6.
Sat was supposed to be very light breeze, but the southerly breeze built a bit more than expected and we had nice racing in 6-10 kts. These was lots and weed and trash in the water from the recent first rains of the year which made getting around the course clean of weeds a high priority. I’m sure everyone had love of loose grass up to larger kelp and the dreaded “Bag Fish”. When and Bag fish wraps around your foil it’s usually game over as often you can see the clear plastic bag fish, or more difficult is if it catches and T-Foil it can rip the tiller right out of your hand. The weather was supposed to be full on on Sun. So the RC tried to get as many races as they could on Sat. They got off 4 races in light breeze, but is it mostly two wire sailing. Terry and Polish were very fast through both days and won the majority of the races with boat speed and consistency with a 1,(2),1,1 score line for the day. The Wilkinson brothers had very a consistent day with a 3,3,3,3 scoreline. Brad and JP had a more inconsistent day with a (6),1,2,4. John and Hoel were right there as well with a 2, (6),4,2,. Paul and Dan sailed consistently at 5,5,5,5. Cam And Aiden had a decent day at 4,4,6, (DNS) and James had a 7, (DNS), DNS, 6 After breaking a trap harness and sailing in to get a replacement.
We had the traditional ABYC Turkey dinner which is always fun and a precursor to the real deal this week.
Sun started with predictions of 15-20 with possible 25 and gusts predicted into the 30s. Early in the AM there was little wind, but it did start to build from and north and east direction indicating an offshore. It quickly built to 15+ and most boats decided to sail with smaller jibs. Jp and I went with the reefed main as well as we feel 15 its is where it starts to pay, especially in the protected flat water inside the break wall in Long Beach. We got out to the course and the breeze had already started to fade. The RC got another 3 races in a very right breeze dying to under 10 kts. Terry and Polish continued their winning ways with another stellar score line of 1,1,2. Brad and JP had a 2,4,3 even with the reefed main and small jib. John Clark and Hoel had and good day with 4,2,4. Patrick and Andrew scored (6),5,5.Cam and Aiden had and 5,6,1 winning the last race – Congrats guys. James and Mehmet had a better day completing all races with 3,3,6. Unfortunately Paul and Dan did not get out as they were adjusting the new rig all day for the expected higher breeze (DNC), DNC, DNC.
Overall and decent showing of boats and the sailing level has increased across the fleet. There are lots more boats out there in each of the venues which are not getting sailed much and we would sure like to see those boats on the line. No reason we don’t have 15 boats consistently for these regattas. We will be sailing in SD a lot over the winter so come join us. We will have another 14 clinic mid Jan so watch for those dates. Next race is New Years Day race in San Diego. Midwinters in LA in Feb. I know Richmond has their Midwinters through the winter months as well. Worlds next Aug in Lake Garda ITA.
Hoist,
BR
USA 1200
