30 minutes of breeze

Organisers at the Soling North American Championship just managed to squeeze in a final race

Augi Hernandez, Jorgen Johnsson, Martin Johnsson have recovered the title of Soling North American Champions.

It was an event that almost couldn't conclude, with an unstable Sunday with storms, ligthining and also heavy rain. Participants were lucky with a window of 30mins to 1hr of 15 knot winds from the South. Because of this the Race Committee were able to start one race before the time limit achieving the minimum required races to validate the championship but once more needed to shorten the course.

USA 807 with Joe Hoeksema, Matias Collins and Rose Hoeksema from Chicago Yacht Club had a solid lead over USA 840 Jim Medley, Marc Hulburt and Chris Roberts from Seattle while the wind was blowing, rounding the first windward mark in the lead and increasing distance on the downwind leg.

However, in a similar fasion to most of the week, only a couple of minutes after the first boats hadpassed the windward mark the breeze dropped from a steady 15 knots to nothing for ten minutes. On the left hand side of the course USA 840 and USA 832 with Charlie Kamps, Vytas Kasnuinas and Jon Bailey were able to gain ground and find some wrinkles in the water.

USA 832 rounded first, USA 840 second and USA 807 third with a good advantage, but again 150 metres after rounding the light air died once again. While USA 840 's choice was the right hand side and open sea, USA 832 and 807 took the left.

Unfortunately no breeze came from either side of the course allowing the guys from the back of the pack were able to close up on the front runners and break into this first group.

USA 845 Augi Hernandez, Jorgen Johnsson and Martin Johnsson made big gains on the extreme left and sailing brilliantly in the light conditions managed to finish in third behind USA 832 who was second. USA 840 finished first and USA 807 managed to lose one more spot to local sailors USA 718 Scott Conger, Mike Rodaer and Greg Conger.

This, coupled with the lack of a discard gave the title to USA 845 Augi Hernandez, Jorgen Johnsson and Martin Johnsson followed by USA 840 Jim Medley, Marc Hulburt and Chris Roberts. In third place local sailor and on duty organizing the event USA 832 Charlie Kamps, Vytas Kasnuinas and Jon Bailey.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	Augi Hernandez	Jorgen Johnsson	Martin Johnsson	1	1	4	3	9
2	Jim Medley	Marc Hulburt	Chris Roberts	3	5	5	1	14
3	Charlie Kamps	Vytas Kasniunas	Jon Bailey	6	4	2	2	14
4	Jamie Hummert	Mike Shoendorf	Rob Hammil	4	2	3	8	17
5	Scott Conger	Mark Rodaer	Greg Conger	2	9	8	4	23
6	John Kennedy	Sam Boyer	Brendan Kennedy	11	3	1	9	24
7	Joe Hoeksema	Matias Collins	Rose Hoeksema	5	8	7	5	25
8	Steve Dolan	Eric Roman	Scott Stroud	8	7	6	6	27
9	Steve Bobo	Dagmar Van Engen	Emily Gensheimer	10	6	OCS	7	39
10	David Baum	Margaret Chavez	Kiara Caldwell	7	10	OCS	10	43
11	Scott Evans	Johnnathan Dellinger	Daniel Morris	9	13	10	12	44
12	Marty McKenna	Mike Minton	Dave Rearick	DNC	12	11	11	50
13	Dick Kinney	John Gieske	Chris Orkey	DNS	11	9	DNC	52
14	Joe Shipley	J.P. Shipley	Willie Rozanski	14	14	12	13	53
15	Tina Stueve	Dianne Dagelen	??	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	64