Close racing for all

On day one of the 18 foot Skiff International Regatta in San Francisco

Jack Young, sailing Pegasus Gold with Euan McNicol and Casey Smith as crew, took a pair of opening-day wins in their stride at the 18 foot Skiff International Regatta on Monday, but Smith was a bit more expressive.

"It will be hard to go back to sailing anything else," Smith, 26, said of his first racing experience in the class. "You don't do on other boats what you do on these."

The all Australian team posted two comfortable victories while other Aussie entries - defending champion John (Woody) Winning, Grant Rollerson and Andrew Cuddihy - stood second, fourth and fifth, separated by former world champions Howard Hamlin and Mike Martin of Long Beach and Newport Beach, Calif., sailing Pegasus White with young Aussie Trent Barnabas in the forward position.

Sixteen-year-old Samuel (Shark) Kahn, sailing the Pegasus Black with Cameron MacDonald and Paul Allen, notched a pair of fifths and shared a three-way tie for fourth among nine boats. One entry, Ty Reed's third hometown Skiff Sailing Foundation boat, retired from the first race with a broken tiller and called it a day.

Eight races remain through to Friday, including the Ronson Bridge to Bridge change of pace late Thursday afternoon. All other races are run on windward-leeward courses from 1.2 to 1.5 miles in length set off the south shore of the bay from the Golden Gate past the host St. Francis Yacht Club to Fort Mason, twice or three times around. There will be no discards.

Winds Monday were a San Francisco normal 18-22 knots but from southwest over the peninsula rather than through the Golden Gate. Young said that may have made his day easier, although he had to work for the lead after a mediocre start in the first race.

"Howie [Hamlin] jibed out early and managed to halve the first run on us," Young said, "and we had a stuff-up dropping the kite, but downwind the next time we had that one long starboard leg with one jibe at the end. We got a really good ride there."

So good that when the boat flew off a wave on what Young called a "bunny hop," Smith exclaimed "Who's yo daddy?!" in his excitement.

Did that means he's having fun already?

"If that's anything to go by, it'll be fun all week," Smith said.

With shirtsleeve temperatures in the 70's, Martin and Winning seemed satisfied just to enjoy the sailing, as long as they're in contention three points off the lead.

"It was a beautiful day," Martin said.

Winning added, "Nothing too anxious out there yet---but it'll get that way."

Results:

1-Pegasus Gold - Jack Young, Euan McNicol and Casey Smith, 1-1
2-Yandoo - John Winning, Andrew Hay and Geoff Beaushop, 2-3
3-Howard Hamblin, Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas, 3-2
4-Rag & Famish - Grant Rollerson, David Cunningham and Chris Cleary, 6-4
5-Fisher & Paykel - Andrew Cuddihy, Brent Dennis and Gerard Smith, 4-6
6-Samuel (Shark) Kahn, Cameron MacDonald and Paul Allen, 5-5
7-Skiff Sailing Foundation - Chad Freitas, Dana Jones and Matt Noble, 8-7
8-Fernside/Skiff Sailing - Patrick Whitmarsh, Kevin Richards and Ben Glass, 7-8
9-Skiff Sailing Foundation - Ty Reed, Dave Chatham and TBD, DNF-DNS