News 2009 Masters' Final Day Report

2009 Masters' North American Championship (Laser.org)

The Masters' North American Championship at the Carolina Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach wrapped up with a big day on Sunday.*It all came down to a tiebreaker to determine the winner, Peter Vessella. Congratulations to all 94 sailors! Results are posted here at the event website.

See below for the final day recap, but first be sure to read Rob Bowden's excellent first day summary on the The LaserForum here, then read his second day writeup here.

As the sailors arrived sunday morning the wind had clocked around to the southwest and was slowly building as a cold front approached the area. The morning saw sunshine and warm temperatures and the heavy air experts were thinking this would be their day. But it was not to be, with heavy thunderstorm activity predicted to arrive in the early afternoon, and their approach to affect the breeze, PRO Gifford Usher, with heavy input from an onsite meteorologist and the NWS, made the call to cancel for the day. With a clear explanation of what was to come the sailors all packed up and then retreated for broiler burgers and the awards ceremony.

With six races completed on Friday and Saturday, a throwout came into play allowing Peter Vessella to drop a 28th leaving him tied on points with Scott Young. However, by virtue of two first place finishes, Peter won the tie breaker and became the overall 2009 Laser Masters' North American Champion. The top three in each of the age divisions were
1) Great Grandmaster - Peter Seidenberg, David Hartman, Dick Tillman
2) Grandmaster - Bill Symes, Peter Branning, Had Brick
3) Master - Peter Vessella, Scott Young, Marc Jacobi
4) Apprentice - Peter Hurley, Eric Faust, Charlie Buckingham

See the full results here.

After the awards the sailors retired to the CYC bar and veranda overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and watched as the PRO's prediciton's came true - wind died during what would have been the first race, then thunderstorms with strikes on the water came rolling in during the time the fleet would have been sailing back to the dock. For the West Coast sailors it was quite exciting as the thunder would shake the clubhouse (we call those "earthquakes" in Ca!), with brilliant flashes of light in the dark sky.

Once again the Carolina Yacht Club has to be congratulated on a first rate regatta, not only the great sailing in the ocean on friday and saturday, but for setting the standard on regatta hosting - from the giveaways, to the "attitude adjusters" after friday's racing, to the open bar, to the fantastic dinner on saturday evening, to the raffle at that dinner, to the burgers and fixings on sunday, etc. Once again Chip and Arland Whitesides put together another truly memorable event!
http://www.laser.org/index.php?opti...ican-championship&catid=19:masters&Itemid=249
 
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