2011 Martin 242 North American Championship

This past weekend the California Yacht Club hosted the 2011 Martin 242 North American Championship (August 26th to August 28th). This twenty-four foot sailboat is very popular here on Santa Monica Bay and the one-design regatta attracted twenty-two boats, including four teams from the Vancouver, British Columbia area. 

Racing was competitive and close and, at the regatta's end, only two points separated the first and second place finishers, with Mike George's "All In" (Cal Yacht Club) taking first place and Paul Zambriski's "Pau Hana" (King Harbor Yacht Club) coming in second. "Pau Hana" was consistently good, with six finishes in the top-five but no first place finishes (or "bullets"), while "All In" had five top-five finishes and three "bullets."

As the wind came up for the final race, "All In" captured the winner's trophy due to their first place finish and a tenth place finish for "Pau Hana." Eight races in total were conducted, with three races on Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday. The lowest finish for each competitor was "tossed out." 

On Thursday, Pease Glaser, the 2000 Olympic Summer Games sailing silver-medalist, conducted a well-attended pre-regatta "start clinic." A resident of Long Beach, Pease's accomplishments include numerous trophies: Tornado North American Champion ('90, '91, '94), U.S. Women's Doublehanded Champion ('84, '85, '93), 1986 Goodwill Games, Estonia (470 Womens Silver Medalist).  

That evening, competitors gathered for a party to get acquainted (or reacquainted) and swap stories. Three of the Canadian teams rented local boats in which to compete, but one team trailered their Martin 242, "Blackadder," and headed south. Along the way, the "Blackadder" team crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (barely squeezing through the toll booth), did some sight-seeing in San Francisco's Chinatown district -- touring Grant Avenue in a big Dodge truck with a Martin 242 trailing behind it -- and took a "unique" side-trip to the Antelope Valley to order a new keel. Skipper Ken Holland, his crew, and the other B.C. teams are familiar with road-trips. They regularly travel to compete against other Martin fleets, like Fleet Four on Sylvan Lakes, Alberta.  You can read more about British Columbia's Martin 242 sailors at http://www.m242fleetone.org/ (Fleet One), and http://www.martin242.ca/ (Fleet Two). 

Serious racing began on Friday under cloudy skies as heat settled in on southern California. Fortunately, the winds, although fickle at times, did fill-in. Thoughout the weekend, the mark-set boats and the Race Committee, led by PRO Mike Priest, were kept busy by numerous wind-shifts, but the regatta came off without a hitch. Mike, who had just completed boat deliveries from Baja to Santa Barbara as well as a Transpac competitor from Honolulu to L.A., remarked at the Saturday BBQ at CYC, "It was very competitive out there, but everybody played fair." 

Saturday night also included the Ullman North American Flip Cup Challenge.  Not sure what that is? Take an empty cup, place it upside-down on the edge of a table, and flip it so it lands right-side-up (in some venues, each flip is preceded by an adult beverage in the cup). The competition was heated and came down to the "Blackadder" and "Fluid Mocean" teams, with "Fluid Mocean" pulling out the victory. The prize? A brand new jib from Ullman Sails!

Sailing the Martin 242 is somewhat of a family affair for winner Mike George.  His wife, Denise, also competed in the regatta with an all-female team and captured a first-place finish in the fifth race.

Other unique entries included:

• The youngest team (with an average age of 18 and composed of skipper Dillon Lancaster, Scot Doyle, Brandon Folkman, and Jordan Martucci) sailed "Fly Away" to an 11th place finish
• The most unusually named team, "Daisy," with a Canadian crew sailing with Mark Sands on his Martin. "Prettiest crew. Prettiest crew gear. Weak on sailing..." (but they still took 10th place)
• And the Martin named "Dean" (as in "Dean Martin," get it?) 

The top five finishers were: 

1. "All In" (CYC) Mike George (skipper), Mike Pentecost, Ken Dair, and Jennifer Arrington. 
2. "Pau Hana" (KHYC) Paul Zambriski (skipper), Grant Stephanoff, Doug Wetiz, and Mike Delanty
3. "Trolley Car" (CYC) Peter Stazicker (skipper), Bill Petersen, Garret Woodworth, and Dana Sterling
4. "Dean" (CYC) Duncan Cameron (skipper), Roland Vollman, Tim Clarke, and Kevin Harriga
5. "Velerito" (CYC) Brack Duker (skipper), Dave Ullman, Doug McLean, Karyn Jones, and Donald Ullman

For more photos, visit the CYC Racing fan page on Facebook.

For a complete finishers' list, visit: http://www.calyachtclub.com/files/11_M242_S1-8.htm 

For more information about the Martin 242, visit http://martin242mdr.com/