Coaches Regatta Final

Well it’s a wrap on the 2006 Coaches Regatta in Clearwater Florida. Local Zach Railey lead wire to wire in this novel event. Although not blessed with strong winds, the event did accomplish a great deal including 22 races, not all conventional but all counting towards the overall score. Some of the variety included races in and out of the harbour, a single elimination downwind challenge, 2 timed slalom courses, and 3 medal races to wrap up the event.

The downwind challenge was held on day 2, although bordering on the light side; it was an unlimited pumping extravaganza. The competitors were paired up based on the first 7 short course races held. Each pair raced side by side like dragsters over an approximate 2/3 mile leg, the loser was out and slowly the fleet was trimmed to the final 2. Round one saw no significant upsets as the top ranked competitors completed a near clean sweep. Round 2 saw event regatta champion Zach Railey and runner up John Romanko both eliminated. Round 3 was filled with upsets as all the top ranked competitors were vanquished to the sidelines, the likes of World Champion Jonas Christensen, European Champion Ed Wright and Chris Cook could only watch in dismay, as the lower seeds moved on to the semi-final round, only Wietze Zetzema (NED) remained of the seeded players. The semi-finals saw Zetzma defeat George Twist (USA) and Adam Nicolson (CAN) defeat Tad Springer (USA). Setting up the final showdown. The early favorite was definitely Zetzema but lots of interest lay with the relative newcomer Nicolson whose radical rocking and pumping style had taken out the like of Aaron O’Grady (IRL) and Jonas Christensen (DEN) in earlier rounds. Off to an early lead Nicolson looked to be shaping up a huge upset until the exhausting style finally took its toll leaving the crafty Zetzma to collect the winner’s hardware for the day.

Day 3 started promising and the group quickly set up for a timed reaching slalom. The course was a six mark pump fest, with the teams starting in reverse order of rank at 30 second intervals. Much to the chagrin of the favorites another upset was in the making with Canada’s Mike Milner showing he has not lost that much when it comes to horsepower, winning both of the timed runs. His 10 min 59 second score of race one bested second place finisher Chris Cook (CAN) by 13 seconds. His 8 min 31 second score stood the test against the other 27 competitors in race two again better compatriot Chris Cook by 5 seconds.

The final day, a 3 race medal day, where the fleet was split into 3 groups (2 of 10 and the final group of 8). To make things interesting a wrinkle was added where the bottom two finishers from groups one and two dropped to the next tier, while the top 2 finishers of tiers 2 and 3 moved up a tier, for each race. Lots at stake with double points counting towards the overall title. Battles occurred within each fleet, most notably the veteran Chris Cook pulling every trick out of his repertoire in an effort to pass fellow Canadian and fleet newcomer John Romanko in the overall standings. Chris made it close but the youngster stood the test through three races and clung to a well earned 2^nd place overall.

All in all it was an outstanding 4 days, although the wind was lighter than hoped the learning experiences in the daily de-briefs provided a great opportunity to all. Special thanks again go to Chris Cook for making it a reality and the Clearwater Yacht Club and Clearwater Community Sailing Centre for hosting the event. Stay tuned for details of next years challenge, for full results go to www.coachesregatta.homestead.com.