Finns Sail SDYC New Years Day Race

San Diego, Cal – Nine Finns signed up for the SDYC New Years Day Race with sunny skies treating the fleet that shook off the New Years’ Eve cobwebs and made it out on beautiful San Diego bay. Even though the line was quite long to accommodate some of the 75+ larger yachts including 12 meter El Moro, and many other big, racing boats, all the Finns fought it out at the heavily favored, pin end of the starting line.
Lee Hope timed things perfectly and popped out to an early lead. The first leg presented a generally backing wind with plenty of holes to make things interesting. Lee kept things together to round the first windward mark with a good lead. Mike Entwistle moved into second w/Gary Mitchell recovering from sailing into a hole after the start to move into third.
On the long downwind leg, Commodore Mike Dorgan showed off his ‘off-wind’ skills, passing 4 boats and moving into the lead by the leeward mark. On the final long upwind Mike Entwistle tried to challenge Dorgan but couldn’t get close enough. Dorgan finished in first place comfortably with Entwistle a few boat lengths back.
SDYC’s current Commodore, Brian Thomas sailed clean and smart, consistently moving up all day and taking third overall. Gary Mitchell, Lee Hope, and James Lawson rounded out the top five with everyone finishing within about 5 minutes of each other after a nice tour of San Diego Bay, making for a fun race.
It was a great start to the New Year and the new decade. The Finn Fleet at SDYC and Southern California continues to be growing, strong, competitive and especially fun…..!

By Michael Entwistle USA 27

Photo by Gary Adler