The International Flying Dutchman class held their 2008 US Nationals at Santa Cruz Yacht Club over the weekend of October 31-November 2. Fifteen boats appeared, including two from Canada. This event served both as a warm-up for the five teams headed for Worlds in New Zealand this December, and a place for the vibrant NorCal fleet to get some experience in a larger fleet with the some of the best FD sailors from the East Coast.

The unsettled weather of this weekend brought varying conditions from steady, near 20-knot winds and scattered rain, to light, near drifting conditions, and throughout, a massive ocean swell. PRO John Buchanan and his team did an excellent job getting six races completed, despite having to cancel completely on Saturday due to the storm. The day saw several capsizes, since some of the teams were made up of skipper and crews who had not sailed together before, and one boat was dismasted in the third and heaviest race.

The top skippers contending for the Championship were Lin Robson from St. Petersburg, FL, Paul Scoffin also living in Florida, Class President Tim Sayles from Pennsylvania, Santa Cruz club member Zhenya Kirueshkin-Steppanoff, and Jim Algert from San Diego. All of these are planning to meet again in New Zealand.

The bullets were divided equally between Robson and Scoffin, to the extent that the championship was decided on a tie breaker in the last race. Other notable entries in the regatta were Buzz Ballenger of Ballenger Spars, who has recently stepped back into the FD after an absence of about 20 years, and aircraft designer and glider pilot Greg Cole of Bend, OR, who campaigned in the FD Olympic trials in the 1980s and is working on tooling to build FDs in his spare time, with crew Duane Ehleringer.

Santa Cruz YC was a gracious host, and the coincidental Halloween party was quite a riot! A better venue could not be had for a dinghy championship.

- Jonathan Clapp

For complete results, see http://scyc.org/Racing/2008/25-fd-na/rr/fd.html. For more of Erik Simonson’s photos, see www.h2oshots.com.