UC Irvine Club Sailing Team

McIntyre Team Race

Over the weekend of March 6th-7th, the UC Irvine Sailing Team traveled to Redwood City, CA to compete in the McIntryre Team race hosted by The Stanford University Sailing Team. Competing in 420’s and CFJ’s, crews Monica Orphan, Martha Davis, Blair Johnston and Frank O’Brien and skippers Jack Porter, Brian Hoover, Rex Cameron, and Chris Humphreys sailed hard to finish 2nd Overall out of 10 Teams. Conditions on Saturdayand the first part of Sunday provided light to medium breeze, which favored the Anteater Sailing Team. Through fantastic starting and awesome 3 vs. 3 team racing execution, UC Irvine went UNDEFEATED (9 wins-0 Losses) in the first Round Robin. After that, they sailed in the Championship-6 Team Round Robin which saw heavier breeze in the 15 knt. range. In this round robin, Stanford University and UC Irvine became tied for first overall with even 12 wins-2 loss records.  Stanford University was proclaimed the winner after UC Irvine picked up 2 more losses in the second, incomplete Championship 6 Round Robin.

Overall, The UC Irvine Sailing team recognized that the hard work at practice has paid off, but there are still areas to work on. At The Eckerd Team Race Intersectional in South Florida only just weekends earlier, the team finished 10th out of 14 teams and suffered losses to tough eastcoast opponents. From this experience, the team realized that they must step their game up and perform at a high level to have a chance at competing for a national championship this spring.  

A repeat second place at The McIntyre Team Race reveals good things to come.  As a matter of fact, almost all the teams present at this regatta were from the district except for one team: University of Washington.  A big thank you goes out to the Hoover Family, The Davis Family, the Humphreys Family, and the Porter Family for providing housing and food for the 8 Anteater Sailors present at the regatta.

-Rex Cameron

ZOT ZOT!!!

This past weekend, half of the UCI sailing team headed eastward to the Frank Mendelblatt Team Race hosted by the University of Southern Florida and Eckerd College. The rest of the team competed in the local South #3 regatta on Saturday and the team race scrimmage on Sunday, both hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Chris Humphreys and Will Larsen drove for the varsity team, with crews Colin Averill and Martha Davis. The JV team consisted of Tyler Cruikshank and Austin Moore in A division and Ashley Hobson and Ryan Moore in B division. The weather cooperated throughout the weekend and all 21 boats were able to sail in warm weather and decent breeze ranging from 5-10 knots. Both teams improved throughout the day on Saturday and were able to work together to be competitive for team racing. The varsity team finished in 8th place, and the JV finished in 11th with Ashley and Ryan tying with Will and Austin in B fleet for 8th place. It is fair to say that both teams learned a great amount about both fleet racing and team racing. Big thanks to Megan Pluth, Danielle Richards and Austin Rogers for running races all weekend!

The rotation floating dock

Team photo

Day 3

It was raining when we woke up. We all anticipated this, but didn’t realize how miserable it was until wewitnessed it.  As a former coach once said, “F-ing east coast.” Despite the rain, we all managed to roll out of bed by 8, eat a heartybreakfast of Wheaties, milk and yogurt, and leave the hotel by 8:30 (Brian wasalready dressed in his full spray gear).   The team headed downJacob’s Rock to begin what would end up being a long day of racing. Geared up for the rainstorm and with our anteater flag proudly flying from ourstern, we headed out to the racecourse.  Race Committee had warned us thatthey would try to finish the rotation by the end of the day, meaning we wouldbe completing 7.  Showers scattered throughout the day and breeze was upand down all over the course.  After four races, placing 6th, 6th,4th, and 8th, we hit the USCG sailing center for a shortbreak.  We ate lunch and took a quick bathroom break, then headed outagain to the course.  We were able to pull off two good starts and place 3rdand 2nd in the next two races.  Going into the final race ofthe regatta, the wind began to die and we had problems getting off the startingline, but were able to successfully play catch-up and finished in 7thplace.  After the race, thunder roared as we sailed back to the docks. At the end of the day, we finished 6th overall, with Boston Collegeplacing first after beating out St. Mary’s in a tiebreaker.  We came backto our hotel for quick showers and to change into nicer clothes for the awardsbanquet.  Overall, we are happy with our position and we all learned muchinformation to bring home with us.  We are now planning a tourist trip toexplore the east coast tomorrow before our flight back to Irvine early Mondaymorning.

http://www.collegesailing.org/nas/fall09/sloops/

Day 2

Ouralarms buzzed at 7:45am east coast times (meaning 4:45 California time) to wakeus up for the busy day ahead.  We headed down to the docks to head out forday 1 of sailing.  We arrived, registered, and rigged our boat to preparefor two hours of practice from 9:00-11:00am.  Coach was able to accompanyus during this time and help us figure out how to handle the Colgate 26’s,which were foreign to us all.  After the practice period, we feltconfident in our boat handling and headed out to race in the ICSA SloopNational regatta.  Other teams on the racecourse included College ofCharleston, Navy, Boston College, Saint Mary’s, and Toledo University. After much waiting for the wind to settle down and moving the racecourse downthe river into more consistent breeze, the races were off.  The first raceacted as learning experience for us all, placing 9th.  We allrealized how to read the puffs and figured out what we needed to do to place inthe top of fleet.  In between races, each team rotated into a new boat,bringing spinnaker and all gear with them.  New boat=new race. The secondrace was sailed in much lighter breeze, but the UCI team was able to figure outthe puffs and placed 5th.  The wind continued to oscillate andfluctuate throughout the 3rd race, but we figured out how the breezeworks over here and finished 3rd overall, just inches behind ToledoUniversity.  The races ended around 4:00 and we headed back to our hotel,with much more knowledge about sailing in Connecticut and racing Colgate26’s.  After short team pow-wow, we hit the pillows to rest for the longday ahead of us.

Day 1

11:15pm+10 hours of travelling=no sleep. Brian Hoover, FrankO’Brien, Ryan Moore, and myself, Ashley Hobson, arrived in Providence, RhodeIsland after a short connection in Cleveland, Ohio.  Coach picked us up,sleepy-eyed, at the airport and drove us to our abode for the weekend, a smallRed Roof Inn nestled in New London, Connecticut, just a mile away from the USCoast Guard Academy. After a short nap to adjust to east coast time, we focusedon the task at hand and headed down to the Academy to check out the Colgate26’s and check out the conditions for the weekend.  After hearing somelocal knowledge and taking photos of the boats to study later that night, we headedinto downtown Mystic to find some food and explore Connecticut.  Westopped at a small fish-shack on the bay and enjoyed some east coast fish whilesitting feet away from the Thames River. We returned to our hotel rooms andcontinued playing catch-up on our sleep. After a 2+ hour nap, we stumbled intoChili’s Restaurant for dinner, and hit up the local ShopRite to buy munchiesand lunchmeat for nourishment throughout the weekend.  The night ended early when we were all fast asleep by 8pm after a long day of travelling.

Check out this article Kimball Livingston wrote about the team

http://kimballlivingston.com/?p=557

The UC Irvine sailing team competed in Treasure Islandthis past weekend with a fleet of twenty-four teams from schools across thewest coast. Helping UCI start off the sailing season were A skippers Rex Cameron and Dan Ryan with crews Blair Johnston and Frank O'Brian, along with Bskippers Brian Hoover and Chris Humphreys with crews Martha Davis and RyanMoore. On Saturday the winds started light and later picked up to about 15knts,and UCI managed to end the day in 5th place. Sunday presented skippers withfluky conditions that picked up in the middle of the day and lightened for theremainder of the regatta. The UCI team finished their first dinghy regatta ofthe sailing year in a respectable 5th place behind Hawaii, CMA, Santa Barbara,and USC. This looks like another promising year for anteater sailing, zot zot!

PCCSC SAILORS OF THE WEEK

FALL‘09

Each week of the regular season, the PCCSC selects Sailors of the Week foroutstanding performances in Coed, Women's and Team Racing Competition. The categories for the awards will be Coed sailor of the week, which could justbe skipper or crew or both skipper and crew, Women’s sailor of the week, whichcould just be skipper or crew or both skipper and crew.  To be a Women’ssailor of the week you must be on a team that is all women including bothdivisions, the sailor can be sailing a coed regatta but they must have a fullwomen’s team.  During the spring season only we may also name a Team ofthe week for a team’s performance in any team race regatta.

You are part of the process! Each Monday we will accept nominations from thesailors and coaches of the conference for Sailor of the week awards.  Allnominees will be mentioned along with the Winners.  

Please participate and be part of recognizing great performances by your peers. Emailyour nominations each week to John Vandemoer at vandemoer@stanford.edu .

A special thanks to our Committee: Dana Jones, Mike Segerblom and Brian Stanford.

Week #2

Coed Sailor of the Week: This past weekend was the Sloop PCC’s hosted by RichmondYC.  It was a weird weekend for conditions, with big breeze, boatbreakdowns and a 1 race showdown on Sunday.  But in the end Irvine was thebest on the water and will represent the PCCSC at Sloop Nationals in November.  Our sailors of the week are:

Frank O’Brien, Monica Orphan, Ryan Moore, Ashley Hobson, and Brian Hoover.

Congrats to UCI represent us well at Coast Guard!!!

Around the conference:  Coming up this weekend, is the famous Stoney Burke atCal.  This will be the first of the PCCSC’s Intersectional and it lookslike it will be a good one.  Come down to TI and watch the action or takepart.  I would suspect we will have lots of nominations this week!!

Don’t forget to nominate, Be part of your conference!!

-John Vandemoer

Against all odds, the Sailing Team at UCI proved that theywere a force to be reckoned with.  Withtheir second qualifier of the season, the Anteaters prevailed, winning theSloop Pacific Coast Championships. 

The forecast predicted gale force winds for Saturday’sracing.  They were right.  The day started out relatively calm, but notfor UCI.  Their boat, seemingly rigged toperfection, ended up missing main sail battens. They scuffled to fix the problem and were towed out to the course.  Every other team had already done a fewpractice sets in the J22s provided by CMA and Richmond Yacht Club.  The Anteaters barely made the firststart.  Their first race, they managed asecond place despite the stress.  In thesecond race, around the last leeward mark the pin attaching the boom to themast sheared off and left UCI’s team of four “boom-less”.  This resulted in a BYE.  Each team switching into that boat insubsequent races sat out. 

The Anteaters forged ahead without a break and managed thebreeze as it began to build.  The thirdrace, UCI came back with a bang and proceeded to win, dominating the downwindlegs with phenomenal spinnaker work. Gybes were in control and quick. In race 4, the Anteaters stayed consistent with a 2, the wind shiftingmore to the right and gusting to over 15 knots. 

Race 5 proved to be the biggest challenge for UCI.  They were late to the start and this was whenthe breeze really began to pick up.  Withgusts over 25 knots there were really no opportunities to pass.  “It was all we could do to keep the boatupright with the kite up,” skipper Brian Hoover commented.  However, with a 4 as their worst finish andthe totals close, the Anteaters needed to focus.  Consistency was the name of the game.  First place finishes were going left andright to the other three competitive teams; USC, UH, and CMA. 

The hunt was on and so was the breeze.  With gusts now in the 30s, the Anteatersbuckled down, trimmed everything in tight and sailed on.  They were 4th off the line, butmanaged to get their boat moving much more effectively.  UCI passed two boats and finished in second,just behind USC.  No spinnakers were set,and for good reason.  CMA attempted a setand capsized their J22 twice on one downwind leg.  This ended the racing for the day.  The standings were USC with 10 points, UCIwith 11, and UH with 12 points.  Withonly one race left for Sunday and a completely different forecast, theAnteaters had their work cut out. 

Sunday began with light breeze and serious attitudes.  After last year’s close regatta (USC winningby 1 point ahead of Irvine) and the summer’s setbacks (UCI budget issuesdropping the team and lack of coach), Irvine had a lot to prove.  The team knew they needed to stay close toUSC and UH.  They were a little late tothe start but had pushed both teams back. However, they split off the line and UCI had to make somedecisions.  They rounded ahead, played aconservative game downwind and again had to make a decision.  CMA split off to the left around the leewardmark while USC and UH hugged the right. The Anteaters chose to stick to the right and ended up watching CMA takethe 1.  Irvine ended the last race with asecond, UH close behind in 3rd and USC deep with a 5th.  This was it. UCI had won PCCs and was going to ICSA Sloop Nationals.

With the feeling still unreal, the team then had to worryabout their Suburban that had broken down the day before.  UCI managed to rise above all of the littlesetbacks over the two days of racing and proved that they were the team thatdeserved to go.  Skipper Brian Hoover ’12had a serious goal set in his mind and consistency throughout the regatta helpedthe team accomplish that.  Superior teamwork also helped UCI rise above. Freshman Ashley Hobson did a phenomenal job on foredeck.  Senior Ryan Moore doused and was a boathandling master.  Senior and Team CaptainFrank O’Brien managed trimming the spinnaker in over 20 knots and Senior MonicaOrphan stood by as backup for lighter breeze.

Nowthe team will travel to the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut the thirdweekend in October.  The team willprepare to sail Colgate 26s.  Be sure tolook for results and updates along the way.

Anteater Sailing Fund

The Anteater Sailing Fund is anaccount held for the UC Irvine Club Sailing Team by the CaliforniaInternational Sailing Association (CISA).  This account allows the team toaccept tax deductible donations while they consider options for starting theirown 501 (c)(3) foundation (The Anteater Sailing Foundation).

Donations of any size areaccepted, however at the time we are only able to accept cash or checkdonations.  We are open to discuss other donation options (stock,property, etc) and would love to discuss how you can name UCI Club Sailing inyour estate plans creating a lasting legacy.  We can also assist in thepurchase of tickets to any UC Irvine sporting event and the acquisition ofseason tickets for Basketball and Baseball events.

Your support ensures thecontinued success of the UC Irvine Club Sailing Team.  Their currentbudget allows participation at only major in-conference events and does notallow for a coach.  Our immediate wish list is as follows

·        $20,000+/year – practice/regatta coach &dock manager.

·        $6,500 – 9 new sets of practice sails – lots ofcorporate sponsorship options here.

·        $2,500 – overhaul the trailers with new bunks,lights and padding.  Repair road wear/tear and corrosion.

·        $40,000 – replace our aging fleet of CFJ’s andtheir associated equipment.  Boat naming rights and sponsorshipopportunities available.

·        $6,000 – send the team to an east coastintersectional.

·        $1,000 – team pennies and complete team uniformpackage  - lots of sponsorship opportunities here, package can be brokendown into clothing subsets (i.e. pinnies, jackets, bags, shirts, etc)

for a copy of the donation form email anteatersailingteam@gmail.com