This past August I competed in the Detroit Cup Match Race Regatta. The event ran from August 21st to August 25th. My team consisted of myself on the helm, Mac Mace on main/tactics, and Taylor Vann on the bow. Mac had just graduated from the College of Charleston and Taylor had just finished up at the Naval Academy so both were eager to do some high level sailing before they venture off into the real world. The Detroit Cup is a Match Racing Grade 2 event and is the second stop on the Match Racing Grand Slam series. This would be my first Grade 2 match race event so I was eager to get on the water and see how we stack up against the other higher-ranking skippers.
On the 21st my team and I arrived to the Bayview Yacht Club for our allocated two hours of practice in the Ultimate 20s we would be racing for the event. The 21st was the designated practice day with racing officially starting on the 22nd. With twelve teams competing in the event and only six Ultimate 20s to race with we quickly realized that there would be a lot of downtime. The format was essentially six teams on the water at a time with six teams watching from the shore. Stage one of the event consisted of two round robins. A six boat morning round robin (group A) and a six boat afternoon round robin (group B). From there the top three teams in each group would advance to the Quarterfinals with the final two spots left in the Quarterfinals to be fought out amongst the bottom six remaining teams in another round robin called the Repechage.
Upon arriving to breakfast on the 22nd we learned we were slotted into the group B round robin, which meant ‘hurry up and wait’. We would not be sailing until the afternoon. Round one of the downtime had commenced. We watched as the race committee fired off flight after flight not wasting anytime as they knew they had a whole other round robin to complete after group A. Finally at around 1:30pm group A had finished and it was group B’s turn to race. We sailed at to the racecourse eager to show our competitors what we were made of. One thing to note about the course is that there is a tremendous amount of current. We were actually sailing on the Detroit River, which is a river that feeds water from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. The Detroit River also acts as the border between Michigan and Canada.
At 2pm the starting gun fired and it was time to race. The first race we had superior pre-start maneuvers and boat speed to easily put away our opponent. The next race was very exciting as we were up against Dustin Durant who is ranked within the top 30 in the match race world rankings so we expected him to be a very tough opponent. However, in the pre-start we were able to pin him below the pin layline. With the current pushing us upwind we were quickly moving above the start line. Finally with 10 seconds left we released Durant and tacked toward the starting line. At this point Durant made a huge misjudgment and tried to squeeze between the pin end and us. This resulted in him being hooked on the pin end immediately. It would take him another minute to unhook himself allowing us to easily sail off to the win. The next race we were up against Chris Steele a top match racer from New Zealand. However, we took a page out of Durant’s book and managed to get ourselves all tangled up on the committee boat. Our misjudgment of the current gave us our first loss of the day. The next race we were up against top female match racer Steph Roble. We had an aggressive prestart and ended up coming off the line fairly even. At the top mark she lead us by about a boat length. The next upwind leg she was able to extend a few more boat lengths. On the final downwind leg to the finish we were able to carry down pressure and engage her in a jibing dual. About four lengths from the finish line she jibed from port to starboard and the umpires ruled that she jibed to close. She would receive a penalty and the race win would go to us. The final race of the day we were up against Matt Graham a local Michigan sailor. There were several lead changes throughout the race. At the final top mark he was leading us by about five lengths. Again we were able to carry good pressure down to him. We were able to, like the previous race, engage Graham in a jibing dual. We forced him into some bad motorboat wake and we were able to sail around him for the win. After day one we had gone 4 -1. We had won the group B round robin.
Day two of the event would again be another ‘hurry up and wait’ day. We knew we would not be racing until the afternoon similar to the previous day. The top 3 in groups A and B automatically advance to the Quarterfinals while the bottom 3 in each group were left to fight it out in the Repechage round. At 10am the racing started for the bottom six teams. We anxiously watched to see which two teams would advance from the Repechage to the Quarterfinals. Around 2 o’clock the Repechage had ended. Ashlen Rooklyn and Matt Graham would be the two teams to advance to the Quarterfinals. After the Repechage had ended all the Quarterfinalist were gathered to draw for boats and chose the competitors they would be racing. Because we were able to win our group (B) we were allowed to choose the individual we wanted to race against in the Quarterfinals. We chose Chris Van Tol, a local sailor at the Bayview Yacht Club. Van Tol qualified third in the A group and had yet to sail that day. We decided that we did not want to race anyone that had sailed in the Repechage round, as they would have the advantage of already doing five races that day. After getting all the Quarterfinal pairings squared away we soon learned that we would not be racing today. The race committee decided they would sail Quarterfinal matches 1 and 4. We were slotted in match 2 so we would not be racing until the next morning. To come to a four-day match-racing regatta and not sail on the second day was a bit strange. My team and I had never experienced a match-racing format, which had so much downtime. Nonetheless we would go enjoy the rest of the day and be ready to race in the morning.
Day three arrived and we were ready to race our way into the Semifinals. Our match against Chris Van Tol would be first to two points so a best of three series. The first start we entered on starboard and had an aggressive prestart against Van Tol. We came off the line fairly even, but with him leading to the favored left hand side. At the top mark we were bow to stern with Van Tol in the lead. Not much had changed by the bottom; Van Tol was still ahead by a boat length. On the final upwind we were able to take control of the left hand side and round the top mark with a two-boat length lead over him. However, on the final downwind leg I did not compensate for the strong downwind current. Van Tol was able to lead the jibe to starboard tack and lay the pin end of the finish line. He would beat us by a matter of inches. The team and I learned our lesson after that race. We regrouped and were ready to bounce back. Race two we executed very well and were able to be in control the whole time. We would win the race with a six boat length lead. It would all come down to the final race to see who would advance to the Semifinals. Again we had an aggressive prestart with both boats coming off very even. We had won the favored left side, but we had to sail under two boats’ spinnakers as they were sailing down. This slowed us just enough for Van Tol to take a slight advantaged. We would round the top mark only two boat lengths behind. As we went to set our kite disaster struck. As the pole launched out our leeward spinnaker sheet got stuck between the pole launching device and the boat. We quickly rendered the situation, but at this point Van Tol had increased his lead to six boat lengths. We tried to engage him in a tacking dual on the second upwind beat, but he just wasn’t biting. Van Tol would take the gun and advance to the Semifinals.
My team and I were very upset to not make it to the Semifinals, but we were also very satisfied to make it as far as we did. This was my first Grade 2 match race event and to make it as far as we did was very impressive. We were able to beat a lot of high-ranking match racers who we were not suppose to beat. It felt good to come away with a top half result. After losing in the Quarterfinals we would race against Steph Roble for fifth and six place. It would be a best of three series again. We would win the first one and she would go on to win the next two races. This was a tough lose, but our team got along very well with Steph’s team so there was no hard feelings. The next day would be the final series racing. We watched from land as David Gilmour defeated Chris Steele to win the 2013 Detroit Cup. I want to sincerely thank the San Diego Yacht Club Competition Syndicate Fund for helping me attend this event. I learned so much and plan to attend this event in the future and make SDYC proud.
Sincerely,
Judge Ryan