United
States Sailing Center -- Long Beach
USC and Alamitos Bay Yacht Club present the 20th
Annual Rose Bowl Regatta
Jan.
8-9, 2005
Jan.
10, 2004
USC,
Point Loma HS Win Wet And Windy Rose Bowl
LONG
BEACH, Calif.---Unperturbed by cool temperatures
and occasionally heavy rains, the USC and Point
Loma High School sailing teams claimed class victories
in the 20th annual Rose Bowl Regatta Sunday.
The
No. 2-ranked Trojans, led by two-time all-American
Mikee Anderson, topped runner-up UC Irvine and
22 other college teams from across the country,
while 17-year-old Adam Roberts led Point Loma
over 52 high school teams from California and
Hawaii.
USC
was the official host of the largest combined
collegiate and high school regatta in the country.
The US Sailing Center and nearby Alamitos Bay
Yacht Club organized the event, with the latter
serving as host facility.
The
teams, each consisting of four or more sailors,
sailed 14-foot, two-person Club/Collegiate Flying
Juniors (CFJs) in 12 rounds of racing, rotating
boats off the beach next to ABYC and the US Sailing
Center on the protected bay adjacent to the Long
Beach Marina.
The
high school teams were split into Gold and Silver
divisions based on previous performance. The Gold
shared Alamitos Bay with the collegians; the Silver
competed on the smaller bay fronting the Sailing
Center.
On
Saturday, like the Tournament of Roses Parade
on New Year's Day, the event caught a window in
the series of rainstorms that have drenched California
since Christmas. The 300-plus sailors enjoyed
relatively dry, if overcast, sailing in 8-10 knots
of breeze.
Sunday
was a tighter window, preceded by a heavy downpour
that abated before launch time. It was chased
by a consistent southerly breeze of 16-20 knots
that later brought an encore of more rain for
the last four rounds.
It
seemed the conditions would test the mettle of
the boats and crews but, while parents and coaches
huddled under canopies on the beach, the sailors
took it all in stride.
"It
was actually refreshing," Anderson said.
"When you're sailing you're getting wet,
anyway. When the rain squalls came in it did make
it tough to see the [wind] pressure, though."
USC's
A boat with Anderson edged UC Irvine's A boat
with skipper rank Tybor by one point. Anderson,
switching crew from lightweight Vanessa Decollibus
on Saturday to the heavier Greg Helias on Sunday,
won three of the 12 races with worst finishes
of seventh and eighth.
Tybor,
alternating between crew Whitney Loufek and William
Pochereva, won two with worst scores of eighth
and ninth.
USC's
B boat boosted the overall winning margin over
UCI to 85-120 by winning 5 of 12 races.
Brown
University, ranked No. 1 nationally, placed 10th
overall but, like other Eastern entries, lacked
its strongest sailors. The Providence, R.I. school
was represented by skipper Isaac Stoner and two
men and two women from Northern California who
were still on holiday break.
"We're
kind of third-string JVs," Stoner said.
But
he started off strong with a 1-2 in the first
two races.
Roberts,
coming off a win with Marla Menninger in a 95-boat
420 class in the Orange Bowl Regatta at Miami,
Fla. two weeks earlier, sailed Point Loma's varsity
boat with Megan Magill. Tyler Sinks was the JV
skipper, alternating with Ben Todter and Brennan
Clark as crew.
MORE
INFORMATION
United
States Sailing Center
(562)
433-7939
www.ussclb.org
Rich
Roberts
Press
Officer
(310)
835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
