BALBOA CHALLENGE 2007

August 5, 2007
Pinckney wins, but which one?

NEWPORT BEACH, Ca.- This the last day of the 2007 Balboa Challenge produced a 6-7 knot southerly breeze that kept the competitors on their toes with a south west shift coming in a couple of times during the day.

Jon Pinckney sailing for the Newport Harbor Yacht club with James Malm and Peter Wells sailed an outstanding first beat in the first race and went on to win the first race of the day. After the race, while throwing over some water to the Newport team Jon said, “ Hey Len, you know where we won that race? Because we had to!” Note to self; think about that tonight for the up coming Lido 14 Class Championship in a couple of weeks.
Jon now has a one-point lead on Ullman who finished sixth.



Race two started with the breeze starting to faze to the right on the first lap Ullman plays a right center route to the weather mark and pushes Jon past the port layline that allows Phil Thompson of the Lido Isle Yacht to round the mark just behind Ullman and in front of Jon. On the second beat Jon goes left Ullman puts a light cover on Jon Pinckney and this allows Phil Thomson with Bruce Cooper and Buddy Richley as crew to go further right and take the lead. Lido wins the race followed by BYC and NHYC. In the mean time Mike Pinckney sailing for BCYC with Peter Newbre and Erik Shampain have sailed the last two races with a forth and a fifth.



Race three the wind goes back to the left Jon Pinckney rounds in forth Ullman in sixth it looks like NHYC will take the event. On the second beat nothing has changed. One boat # 6 has found a nice left shift with good pressure and rounds in close third. Ullman gybes and goes to the right side of the course and the fleet is all on the left and going to the finish line. Ullman gets fresh breeze and crosses three boats and is now less than a half boat length from Jon. BUT WAIT! Boat # 6 is Mike Pinckney and has just taken the lead and wins the race. Jon crossing the finish a half boat length ahead of Dave taking forth while Dave takes fifth. Everyone get out their scorecards and the WINNER IS----- BCYC on a tiebreaker. WHAT A GREAT RACE! What an OUTSTANDING EVENT!




On the docks everyone is all smiles and talking about next year. Jon is talking to Ullman about the last run while Ullman is asking Jon “ Not only did you lose on a tie breaker you lost to your brother” Jon is just smiling and is saying yeah but “ What a great event”. I never have chaired an event when sailors of this caliber keep coming up to me and thanking BYC and myself for placing this event back on the map.

Of course I had a lot of help. BYC Fleet Captain Dick Pacelli made it very easy and pushed to make it a first class event, Mike Wathen brought in his crew and did and outstanding job as PRO, Bronny Joy from www.joysailing.com kept everyone at the bar watching the endless slide show. I have to think we really did something good for our sport this weekend and an event like this just has to keep getting bigger and better! Now go check at all the 1900 photos of the event and make plan on attending next year.

BALBOA YACHT CLUB
BALBOA CHALLENGE
AUGUST 4&5 2007


1. MIKE PINCKNEY, PETER NEWBRE & ERIK SHAMPAIN BCYC
5,6,2,1,4,5,1= 24

2. JON PINCKNEY, JAMES MALM& PETER WELLS NHYC
2,7,4,3,1,3,4=24

3. DAVE ULLMAN, JON BELL & CHUCK ULLMAN BYC
3,1,7,2,6,2,5=26

4. SCOTT DeCURTIS, ADAM CORPEZ-LANE&MARK SPECTOR KHYC
1,5,6,4,3,7,2=28

5. PHIL THOMPSON, BRUCE COOPER, BUDDY RICHLEY LIYC
7,4,3,6,2,1,8=31

6. DUSTIN DURANT, SCOTT DICKSON & IAN PICE LBYC
6,2,1,5,OCS,6,7=36

7. ADAM ROBERTS, RON ROBERTS & TIMDORSEY SDYC
4,3,5,8,OCS,OCS,3=41

8. ANDY WITHAM, NATHAN PRATHERT & ERIC HEIM DPYC
8,8,8,7,5,4,6=46





August 5, 2007 Newport Beach, CA- After four races its still anybody’s race in the Balboa Challenge hosted by the Balboa and San Diego Yacht Clubs. The eight-boat fleet sailed in identical Governors Cup 21 “have brought an equal playing field to all the participants and its anybody’s race” said Len Bose chairman of the event.

Mike Pinckney sailing for Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club of Newport Beach found himself over the starting line for the first start and had to work hard to get back to the line to clear himself. “Yah, I don’t want to do that again,” Mike then went on to finish fifth in that race and finish the day strong with a second and first place and that places him in second place overall.



The leader after the first day of racing is Dave Ullman sailing for the Balboa Yacht Club. You will notice that every team, has at least, a sixth place finish and staying at the top of the fleet is not an easy task. The boats are drawn between races and while checking in his boat Dave commented “ Its very close racing today”. Dave understands the effort it takes to run an event like this is always very thankful to the volunteers and said “ Thanks Len, the boats are very equal and it looks like we will have our hands full tomorrow”



Young Dustin Durant sailing for the Long Beach Yacht club is tied for second place and will give the veterans a run for the money on the final day of racing. While checking his boat in I was going over a couple of the boat handling instructions and Dustin referred that “ This is just like the Governors Cup instructions”. “Perfect” I said, “ then you have done this before”? “Yep!” It goes without saying the top three teams were the first off the dock during our practice day on Friday.

The night ended with dinner outside on the flag deck in a blue blazer event with prime rib, wine and great competitors. Its always fun to listen to the comments while everyone is watching the slide show with over four hundred pictures taken by www.joysailing.com. Comments like “ your not going to that to me again are you?” or “ look I wasn’t over early” and “ OK, this is how we are going to-do it tomorrow”. Everyone must go to joysailing.com and go through all the photos. WARNING you will spend hours going over all the photos and you will learn a lot about boat handling.

I will do my best to send the final report later this evening. If you can come out on the water today and watch you should note on the results page under boat name is the color of spinnaker your team is sailing.




TODAY...WIND VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS IN THE MORNING...BECOMING SW
TO W 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON.
8-4-07 Newport Beach, CA Balboa Yacht Club & San Diego Yacht Club presents the Balboa Challenge 2007. This years competitors are:
BYC - Dave Ullman
BCYC - Mike Pinckney
DPYC - Andy Witham
KHYC - Scott DeCurtis
LBYC - Dustin Durant
LIYC - Phil Thompson
NHYC - John Pinckney
SDYC - Adam Roberts
Yesterday was boat draw and practice with most of the teams showing up when registration opened and on the water ASAP. Checking the teams into the boats went smoothly and you could not help but notice the level of concentration these competitors bring to the dock. The fun really started at the end of the day. The Balboa Yacht Club had placed out Beer and drinks with some pu pus and yarn started to spin. Mike Pinckney sailing for BCYC to brother John sailing for NHYC Hey John, Why are you here John hearing this banter before had no comment. With talk around the group from up coming Americas Cup to what everyone had just gone through on Trans Pac while always keeping one eye on the entourage of the Dana Point Yacht the competition had already started, almost like a weigh in at a boxing match, sailing style!
It will be fun to watch Dave Ullman sailing with his son Chuck, the Pinckney brothers race within a race, Adam Roberts taking on the old guys, the teams are all very strong. This will lead to some outstanding racing today. More to come with photos from Joy Sailing at www.joysailing.com


Lens Lesson # 2 You try your best no matter what and it usually works out