Photo: J. Golison
2025 Dragonflite95 Region 8 Championship Regatta Report
By: Chris Staiger
The San Diego Argonauts hosted the AMYA 2025 Dragonflite95 Region 8 Championship Regatta May 17th-18th. 21 Skippers from 4 different states including 2 past DF95 National Champions competed.
Friday afternoon began with check-in and practice-racing. Technical Committee Chairman Steve Ross and PRO Chris Staiger performed check-in and measurement and distributed logo hats, while Commodore Pat Nevitt took customized sandwich pre-orders for Sunday’s lunch. (Special thanks also to Pat for his tireless efforts in having the city dredge the reef and make our ENTIRE pond useable once more!)
Saturday morning saw the remaining skippers and boats checked-in under drizzly cold conditions (improved somewhat by hot coffee and donuts provided by Purser Gil Jansky.)
PRO Chris Staiger set 6 marks: an inside leeward Gate, a Start/Finish Line, and two windward marks. The standard long course, which was used for every race in the regatta, consisted of: Start, two windward marks, inside leeward Gate, two windward marks, inside leeward Gate, Finish. Depending on the winds, the windward marks were rounded either to Port or Starboard. The HMS with 2 Fleets and 4-Boat Promotion/Relegation was utilized, resulting in 12/13 Boat Heats throughout the event. Finishes and Scoring were recorded by Steve Delva.
Following the Skippers Meeting, competitors were faced with shifty south to south-westerly winds which required constant relocation of the windward marks and shifting of the Start/Finish Line. Even so, most races on Saturday consisted of long port tacks up the pond with only occasional short starboard hitches. Saturday’s successful skippers managed to dodge the biggest holes and take advantage of the fingery puffs to keep their sails full and their boats moving.
Skippers were treated to Bob Williams’ famous grilled hotdogs for lunch. Bob also provided beverages and ice throughout the weekend.
By the end of the day with 8 races completed, past Champion Mark Golison, led with 11 points, followed by Gary Boell (15), Chris Davidson (17), Jim Sears (20), Kerim Baran (24), with Jon and Dennis Rogers rounding out the Top 7.
Following the racing, skippers were treated to a pond-side Café-Med style barbecue prepared by Chris and Pam Staiger. Opa!
Sunday morning began with more promising conditions: Coffee, donuts, warmer temperatures and 5 – 8 knot winds a bit more westerly than the day before. Marks were adjusted and after a few heats, the breezes filled in and trended more westerly allowing starboard roundings at the windward end to resume. Jan Nevitt provided custom-ordered sandwiches for lunch as the sailing conditions improved. The sun emerged and racing was completed in classic San Diego conditions: 8 – 10 knots of wind straight down the pond under sunny skies and warm temperatures.
By the time the dust settled, Mark Golison had held solidly onto 1st, while Jim Sears leapfrogged into 2nd and Chris Davidson fought past Gary Boell to take 3rd by a mere tenth of a point. The Rogers Brothers (who have a habit of finishing adjacent to each other) took 5th (Jon) and 6th (Dennis).
Skippers were given secret ballots to vote for the one competitor who best exemplified sportsmanship both on and off the racecourse: They chose Jon Rogers to receive the Corinthian Spirit Award.
Thanks to Chairman Gil Jansky, Bob Williams, Jack, and Keith Sturgess who handled site setup and takedown and Tom Warren who manned the rescue boat. Special Thanks to all the Argonauts who worked so hard clearing weeds, algae and debris to restore full use of our Pond!
Photo: J. Golison
R8 RCR Results
A Skippers Report by Len Bose:
Region 8 Championships hosted by San Diego Argonauts started out with a cold breeze out of the south, which made it rather challenging for the PRO Chris Staiger and his team to set up a square race course with the breeze out of the south running athwart the model pond in Mission Bay.
This did not slow down Team Staiger with a plan for every condition. Racing started around 11:15 with eight heats completed under the Heat Management System (HMS). I sailed in 10 races bouncing from B to A, then back to B again, add that with Hot Dogs for lunch and a scrumptious BBQ to wrap up the day. Not to forget one of my favorite parts of traveling regattas, sitting around in our lawn chairs and sharing adult beverages, reviewing the days and the challenges to come.
Looking at the score sheet, the usual suspects are at the top of the score sheet. What is rather encouraging to me are the one or two names that sailed very well during the day and are hanging out with the big dogs. So it can be done, I just need to connect the dots and finish in front of Dan Shier, and I will be that much closer to hanging with the Big Dogs.
You might have noticed that more than one of the big names had to withdraw from the race. Keith Ives had recently completed an eye procedure and is recovering, We hope to be rubbing shoulders with you soon. Chris Raab is looking like a lost dog sitting outside in the cold rain by himself without his good friend Ives around. Feeling bad for the “Little guy,” I called Raab up at around 7:00 pm, asking if he needed a wing man to head over to the San Diego Yacht Club. “Dude, the bed just reached out and grabbed me. I’m done.” Was his reply. Mr. Texas, Brig. North had entered and was unable to attend. North always adds an additional flair to any venue, especially in post race review. Jim Sears went the extra mile, thinking that North would be attending found and purchased a couple twelvies of “Shiner” Texas beer. “There is nothing finer than Shiner!” North, you missed out; that is good beer.
Forecast for Sunday is a cool 65 degrees and 7-9 knots of breeze out of the southwest, I’m off to the pond.
Day two started out much warmer with the breeze still lingering out of the south. PRO “Grand Master” Chris Staiger was conducting his four-dimensional chess board with the variables of wind direction, wind strength, mark set, HMS scoring, and enough Ice in the water cooler. With the breeze out of the south, the fleet was rounding the weather mark to starboard, which is the furthest from shore, while rounding one is on port tack, which led to some excitement with the starboard lay line coming in at the mark. This situation possibly led to the quote of the day: a port tack competitor picked up a gust and broadsided me while I was on starboard. My response was the proper protest hail with the added comments “ With such great velocity and impact, that’s two three sixties .” The infliction of my voice had Gary Boell, who was not in the same heat, said “ You made me wonder if that was in the rules?”
With the marine layer diminishing and the wind shifting to the west, the course was adjusted again, and the fleet returned to rounding the weather mark to port. The battle for the top seven places was extremely competitive, with Mark Golison finishing in the top three twelve times out of the eighteen races. Jim Sears and Chris Davidson were both finding ways to finish in the top half of the fleet throughout the day.
Gary Boell was attacked by a port tack, downwind, boat as he was starting the second beat and was taken out of the race and granted redress. Boell is a closer, and it looked to me he would have finished in a better place than his redress score and missed out on fourth place by one-tenth of a point. We all understand there is a bit of luck while racing RC boats. In the previous event, I took out two people over the weekend, and one of those two was my best friend. This week I was halfway through the second beat in A fleet working towards a finish that would keep me in A fleet, and was taken out by someone who was taking their penalty turn “Shit Happens”.
As always, I enjoyed every moment and hung out with Chris Raab. After Saturday’s racing, I described Raab standing out in the rain. Well, the sun came out on Sunday, and Raab shook himself off and scratched the back of his right ear with his left leg, still not sure how he did that. He was able to stay in A fleet for most of the day, jumping from 18th place on Saturday to 12th after Sunday’s racing.
Dan Shier continued his dominance over me, I did not do myself any favors by missing a race. I had a senior moment after demoting out of A fleet, I went a sat down for the start of the B fleet race. I had better remember that lesson.
Shier’s videos are getting better each event. I received two calls today while writing this, telling me how much they enjoy his efforts. There was another maneuver that I was envious of, Golison. At the trophy presentation, he hailed protest to his lab “Maggie”. She quickly completed a 360. OK, I am done staring at the results page, wondering what if. Now, I just have to figure out how Raab scratched his right ear with his left leg.
Photo: J. Golison
Lets go sailing!
Len Bose