race report
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 The California One team sailed aboard the red Dire Straits on Saturday morning. Mitsuhiro Iwamoto, on the tiller, won the Sportsmanship Award, which was sponsored by Lions Center for the Blind. Trimming the mainsheet is Philip Kum. On Full Tilt Boogie, in the background, is the BAADS team. ©2010 norcalsailing.com |
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California Invitational Blind Sailing Regatta May 16, 2010 They came from as far away as New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and Boston. They flew in on Thursday. On Friday, they met over lunch, went over the Sailing Instructions, and got in some on-the-water practice, joined by two teams from the Bay Area. "You have to adapt. And keep a sense of humor." To sail blind, that is.
Saturday's schedule included three races before lunch, a break, then three more races, followed by a catered dinner and silent auction as a fund-raiser for the Marin Sailing School Program for the Blind, which co-hosted and fielded one of the two local teams, California One. The other came from San Francisco's Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS). Local sailors loaned seven J/24s to the six teams: Dream Catcher, Full Tilt Boogie, Phantom, Another White Boat, Zoom, Dire Straits and one from Treasure Island Sailing Center. Svendsen's Marine provided slips for the boats, and Island YC ran the regatta and the shoreside activities and provided ground transportation as needed. The teams pay for their own travel, but are hosted by local families. Dennis Hebberly, who was the helmsman for the Kiwi team, and his wife Elaine are combining their trip to the Regatta with a vacation to Canada. Elaine explained to us, "It's all about learning to do things differently - adapting - never say never." Dennis was a computer consultant before he began losing his vision - and thanks to adaptive technology he can continue working. He took up sailing just this past September. The Hebberlies come from Napier, about halfway down the east coast of the North Island. "He's taking every opportunity to get on a boat," said Elaine. The couple are also into fly-fishing.
Dennis has a rare form of vision loss which makes bright light harder to see in than darkness. "It's like a white-out," he said. "But my nighttime vision is almost normal. The rods operate normally, while the cones do not - no color at all. The other senses kick in. You use your ears more - and your feet. Your sense of touch and smell kick in."
Besides the helmsmen, the mainsheet trimmers are also vision-impaired. The tacticians are sighted but are not allowed to touch anything. Rather, they are constantly feeding information and directions to the drivers, like, "Come up two degrees." The jib trimmers also have normal vision. An owner's rep sailed aboard each boat as well.
The racing was as competitive as any one design racing in light air conditions can be, so Paul Kamen of Berkeley YC volunteered to hear protests. Although two were signaled on Saturday, none made it to shore. One was dropped when the protesting boat won the race, and the other when the burdened boat did its penalty turns, so Paul got to relax and enjoy the party. Protest flags flew Sunday too, but all incidents were resolved on the water.
In Race 2 on Saturday, the three lead boats got to the leeward mark in a tight formation. In Race 3, all the boats were together at the windward mark, where it had got a bit windier since morning. Racing continued on Sunday. The teams rotated through the different boats, so that the results would be about their skills and not which boat is fastest. "We did have one extra boat on hand, just in case," said Island YC Staff Commodore Dawn Chesney. "Just in case was needed on Sunday. After leaving the slip and starting to sail, one of the boats would not sail to starbord. One of the racers went swimming after the races on Sunday to try and retrieve an overboard item, maybe a large piece of plastic, which had been seen by another racer Sunday morning, and may have became attached to the keel. We held a redress hearing (with Paul Kamen's phone support) to resolve the inability of that team to sail Race 1 on Sunday. All parties agreed to the Redress Committee decision." With eight races counted and one throw-out, the scores demonstrate how close the racing was: "Another indicator of how even the competition was," said IYC Commodore David Ross,"- each team got at least one bullet over the weekend."
Marc Fiorito of GammaNine volunteered as photographer for the event - see his slideshow at http://gammanine.com/viewing/?slideshowID=38185, and local sailing photographer Erik Simonson also came out to take some pictures.
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