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1970
World Championship - Regatta Report |
1970 World's Championship
- Marstrand,
Sweden
Regatta Results
Report from the 1971 Star Class Log by William
E. Buchan
Note: This report has been scanned in by Ed Sprague. For a collection
of Worlds' reports plus photographs contact Ed Sprague (
ejspraguejr@mac.com ) to order his book "The San Diego Bay Star
Fleet".
Editors note: Last year we had a World's report from a first-timer at
the series. This year we are privileged at the other end of the spectrum
with this account by the champion, Bill
Buchan, who has been in the winning column for years and who earned
another gold star in 1961. In this matter-of fact report Bill is of course
too modest to say anything about his own superlative performance; but
he conveys much of the excitement and variety of a well run World's Championship
sailed in a unique environment.
The World's Championship
of 1970 began for me in the fourth race of the 1969 series as we were
plodding along in 40th place watching our chances for winning the series
go straight down the drain. I was determined then that if we got to the
1970 series with any boat speed at all, I certainly wouldn't take any
such gamble as we had taken in that race.
Karen and I arrived
in Marstrand one week ahead of the series; I had several small changes
to make in the way the boat was set up. One of these changes was mounting
the jib winch behind the vang track so that the vang could be left hooked
up all the time.
This was very handy, especially in the windy conditions we were to experience
in a couple of the races during the week to follow. After three days of
running back and forth on the ferry between our hotel on the Island of
Marstrand and the parking lot where the boat was kept, we were ready to
go sailing.
When we first arrived
in Marstrand we noticed that the boats had a hard time leaving the harbor
mouth. The reason as we found out later was that those Scandinavian blondes
that you have heard so much about love to sun bathe on the rocks near
the water. We managed to get out into the open water, however, and had
some very nice sails under conditions which misled us into thinking that
this was going to be a light weather series in smooth water. In fact we
often had trouble making headway against the current.
First Race
Good wind about 18 to 22 knots. Course "0". We went to the left
side of the course with Don Trask and George Bruder. I think it was the
right way to go except that we overstood badly and rounded about 15th.
The first boat around was Ding
Schoonmaker with Dick Stearns
second. We pulled out all the stops on the two reaches and with the help
of a couple of broken masts by Lowell
North and Pelle Petterson we rounded the end of the first lap about
8th. On the second beat we moved up to 5th. It was on this beat that Tom
Blackaller's spreader collapsed causing his mast to break. This happened
just as I was watching him through the window to see if we were going
to clear him, as he was on starboard tack and ourselves on port right
at the weather mark. On the run we moved past Vladimir Vasiljev to round
in fourth place. One the third beat we realized that our intermediate
upper on the port side had either stretched or wasn't right to begin with
because the mast looked awful whenever we trimmed the jib in hard. We
had to ease up considerably on that tack and partly as a result of that,
and also because we were getting darned tired, we were passed by Vasiljev
and also by Bruder who really came on fast towards the end. At the finish
Schoonmaker was first with Stig Wennerstrom second. They were both so
far ahead of us all day that we never really saw them. It looked to Carl
and me that if the conditions stayed as they were in this race, both Ding
and Stig as well as Bruder would be awfully hard to beat.
Second Race
All night before the second race the wind blew like crazy. I couldn't
get a wink of sleep thinking about having to face another day like the
first. Especially when everyone kept saying that it really wasn't blowing
very hard, but that it probably would be by the second day. It still looked
like a lot of wind right to within a half hour of the start and then it
died right out to perhaps 8-10 knots but with plenty of left over chop.
Our strategy, determined before the series, was to start somewhere near
the middle of the line, assuming the lines were square of course, then
make a couple of tacks up the center until we could get some feeling for
what side of the course would be favored. Luckily for us in this race
we were forced over to the left hand side by a couple of starboard tack
boats just when we were settled down to go out to the right side. No sooner
had we tacked over to starboard than we saw the boats ahead on that side
getting a tremendous lift so we carried on until we got their slant then
tacked over to port. This lift gave us the lead over all the boats that
had gone out on the right hand side earlier, with only 3 or 4 boats still
above us. I could pick out Pelle Petterson and John Albrechtson in the
group. No sooner had most of the boats that had gone out to the right
taken their lickings by going behind us to get our slant, than the wind
swung back to the right. We now had the boats that were above us as well
as an increase in our lead over the others. We rounded first with Pelle
second. On the second beat North and Blackaller seemed to close quite
a bit on us. However, we still rounded first and hung on down wind and
the third time up, although by this time the fleet was getting pretty
well strung out. Ding was sixth so we moved up into first by one point.
Particularly on the last time upwind we seemed to have good boat speed,
which was very encouraging to us; although by that time Lowell and Tom
were having a private tacking duel so it was hard to tell for sure how
we were going.
Third Race
The wind was with us again for this one. Although the waves were perhaps
smaller than in the first race they were also shorter across so it seemed
as if we pounded more, and the wind blew at least as hard if not more.
In the first race we had our jib leads outboard (11°) with our traveler
eased perhaps 8" to 12" and it looked to Carl and me as though
the boats that were beating us had both their travelers in the center
and their jib leads inboard (7° to 8°); so we naturally thought
that all we had to do was copy them and we would go as well. The thing
we learned was not to copy anyone else, especially if you haven't been
doing that badly to begin with. We just didn't seem to have any boat speed,
but for some reason instead of going back to what had worked for us earlier
we just kept plugging along. Tom Blackaller came screaming in first to
the weather mark leading a pack of boats that must have gone quite a way
out on the port tack after the start. Ding Schoonmaker was 2nd and we
were about 15th. On the reaches we might have moved up a place or two.
All I can remember was catching a couple of big waves and planing like
crazy. It is some experience to be going so fast that it almost takes
your breath away and look behind and see someone catching up to you.
On the second beat
we might have gained a couple more boats but we were still getting hammered
by the boats that were going all the way out to the right hand corner,
or at least so it looked to us. The run was another exciting leg, as the
wind had switched around so that it became a broad reach, just far aft
enough so that we could carry whisker poles. As of this time we were fighting
to get into the top 10, while Tom Blackaller, Ding Schoonmaker and Pelle
Petterson were having a whale of a battle for the first three places,
with the finish in that order. George Bruder was a close fourth. Don Trask
made an excellent recovery moving up from 13th at the first mark to finish
fifth, obviously enjoying the heavy going. I felt that we had a chance
to beat Barton Beek out of sixth place in the race, but all of a sudden
Stig came charging up on us so fast that we had to stay on top of him
until we were sure it was safe to tack for the line, leaving him above
the layline. Barton was able to go for the favored end of the line and
beat us very neatly.
We had a wonderful
mid-week trophy presentation party at the Carlsten Fortress, featuring
barbecued lamb and aqua-vit by candle light, with dancing afterward and
on into the morning. Ding Schoonmaker won the Vanderveer Trophy. We were
second, 4 points back and Stig Wennerstrom and George Bruder were tied
for third another 5 points behind so it was still anybody's series, especially
among these four at this stage.
Fourth Race
After a two-day delay because of rest day and the cancelled race of the
following day, we settled down for a double header, which would wind up
the week.
Tom Blackaller gave
us two pieces of advice without which we never would have won the series.
One was to put on a set of upper backstays and leave them on; these undoubtedly
saved our rig during the heavy races. In fact we probably wouldn't have
even made it to the starting line on the first day without them. The other
was to use the flatter of our two jibs all the time, which we also did.
Our main concern before the series was that we seemed to lack pointing
ability at home early in the year. During the series, however, probably
due to the flatter jib this wasn't a problem, although we still relied
on speed rather than pointing to get us where we wanted when the chips
were down. Even though the fourth race looked as though it would be light
we stayed with the flat jib, and then when the wind came in to perhaps
10 knots we knew we had done the right thing.
Our tactics perhaps
were open to question when we went out on port tack even though Ding went
the other way on the first leg. One reason of course was that we had to
make up 4 points; but the other was that both Wennerstrom and Bruder also
were going in our direction and they naturally gave us quite a bit of
concern. Another reason was that North was going out, and I figured that
if it's good enough for Lowell it is good enough for me. The wind was
blowing more or less off shore and as a result the water was the smoothest
of the week. Even though we did well on port, the first boat to the mark
was Budnikov, who went all the way the other way, towards shore; we were
second and George Bruder was either third or fourth, with Albrechtson
in the other spot. We didn't count the boats but it looked to us as though
Ding was at least tenth at this point.
For this race and
the fifth we sailed course "1" which meant that there were only
two beats. On the second upwind leg we passed Budnikov and stayed on top
of Bruder since he was the closest threat to us in the series at that
time. As we neared the weather mark it looked as though John Albrechtson
was a mile ahead of us by going inshore, but at just the right time the
wind shifted back our way and we managed to just beat him around. Bruder
hit the weather mark not once but twice so needless to say in the process
of circling the mark a few times he dropped back quite a bit, to eighth
place in fact. By winning this race and with Ding finishing in ninth place
we had a 4-point lead going into the last race and by this time Stig and
Bruder were respectively 12 and 13 points behind. We actually miscalculated
and thought we had a 5-point lead, so it was a good thing we didn't have
too close a call in the last race.
Fifth Race
In this race the wind was a little stronger than for the fourth, perhaps
12-15 knots by the finish. We made a conservative start (I call them conservative
even though they are the best I can do), near the weather end of the line,
probably the farthest we strayed from the middle of the line all week.
Schoonmaker, North and Blackaller all had very good starts quite close
to the weather end.
Even though we were about two rows behind the line we had a big hole above
us to tack through and clear our wind, which we did. After a couple more
maneuvers to get ourselves clear we squared away on a long starboard tack
for shore about 100 yards to weather of Lowell and quite a good distance
behind; Ding was about midway between us and it didn't appear that there
were many boats in between. Our main concern was that there would be a
big lift paralleling the shore on port tack which would have put Ding
a long way ahead of us. Fortunately that didn't happen. In fact the only
boat that clearly had us was Lowell, with a group of six or seven boats,
Ding and ourselves included, not too far behind. Lowell rounded first,
we were second, Blackaller and Petterson were third and fourth, I can't
remember in what order, then Ding. On the two reaches we held our positions
and on the second beat we moved up to first as the wind freshened. One
reason for our being first was that the current started pushing us to
weather as we approached on port tack leaving several boats, Lowell particularly,
well above the lay line. In fact we had to bear off in the last hundred
yards even though we weren't close to laying the mark at the beginning
of the tack. We hung on to finish first (with a one-minute lead-Ed.);
North nipped Blackaller for second, Petterson finished fourth with Schoonmaker
fifth, and Wennerstrom was sixth. Bruder again had all kinds of trouble
as his main halyard came unhooked and I guess he couldn't get it to hold
so he retired from the race just after the beginning of the second beat.
Our winning margin for the series was eight points over Schoonmaker with
Wennerstrom in third place another eight points back.
The Royal Gothenburg
Yacht Club held another fine function at the Marstrand Hotel where the
final prizes were awarded. Naturally Carl and I were extremely thrilled
to have won the World's. Just as memorable in the years to come will be
the warm and friendly hospitality shown to us by our hosts and all the
Swedish people we met during our stay.
Charlie
de Cardenas did a marvelous job handling the actual running of the
races. As I recall every single race except the fourth was started exactly
on time, and I am sure that that one would have been also if the wind
had cooperated. Before the series started I overheard Charlie saying that
he would attempt to set all the lines square, and as near as I could determine
that was the case except of course for the last minute shifts that might
have favored one end ever so slightly over the other.
Ever since I started
traveling to different places for regattas I have always hoped that some
day the Star World's would be held in Sweden so that I might make the
trip. For me this was a dream come true.
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