PCISA Gaucho Regatta
Over the weekend of March 9-10th, our high school sailors competed locally at the PCISA Gaucho Regatta, hosted by SBYC and UCSB. We are very lucky to have one of the five major PCISA events here on our home waters. Our teams, SBHS and DPHS, were ready to take some home court advantage. March and early spring in Santa Barbara can be an interesting time for wind conditions. In fact, the day before the regatta saw wind velocities in excess of 30 knots. We were fortunate to have two beautiful days of wind and weather for the Gaucho Regatta.
Saturday brought blue spring skies and wind ranging from 9 to 16 knots. Race Committee was ready to jump at the perfect conditions. A 1100 first start signal commenced without a hitch and sailors battled it out just off the breakwall. Our sailors displayed great boatspeed and starting technique during the twelve races that were completed. SBYC’s Race Committee did a great job squeezing in races all day long. During rotations, sailors had fun on the beach at Sandspit and enjoying the amenities of SB Harbor.
On Sunday, sailors arrived to overcast skies and light wind out of the south. With a 3:30 end time, Race Committee was looking for the conditions to improve and get racing underway. Fortunately, the weather made a turn for the better and sailors were greeted to light but sailable conditions. In a southerly breeze which eventually shifted to a southwesterly wind, sailor’s finished eight more races, bringing the race count to twenty total.
At the end of the weekend, SB teams had great results! Congrats to SBHS (Caden Scheiblauer, Sydney Mendoza, Ryan Satterberg, Jon Seawards, Liam Andresen, and Cameron Scheiblauer) for finishing 5th overall of 48 teams! They were the 3rd school in the rankings. Also a shout out to DPHS’s Chris Kayda/Claire Wicker for finishing 2nd in the hyper-competitive A-Division!
We look forward to the Pacific Coast Championships in San Diego April 13-14th!
