Peter Feldman Wins DF95 National Championship

In 15 scored races, Feldman won eight, finishing with 29 points.

By Rod Sturgess

The DragonFlite 95 Nationals were held August 2-4 at the Model Yacht Pond in Mission Bay, San Diego, a rectangular saltwater pond dug out of Vacation Isle in the 1940s, long before the EPA came to be. The long side of the rectangle runs east-west, perfect for the prevailing 8-10 knot west winds. According to locals, for the regatta winds were slightly higher than normal.

There were 42 entries resulting in three heats of 17 boats each, with about 25 from California, five from FL, four from TX, three from WA and two from AZ. 

The pond is fed by a gate which lets the water in from Mission Bay at high tide, and then closes to keep the water in. The gate is leaking at the moment, so the pond is about five feet below normal, forcing competitors to launch their boats by wading into the muck until water was deep enough to sail away from the shore. The contestants presented various footwear strategies. The winner was successful with just bare feet while second and fourth had some sort of water shoe, which meant they walked up and down the pond with wet feet all day.  

The race committee put on a first-rate regatta. Daily lunch and Saturday dinner were provided. Except for entry fee and hotel there wasn’t any reason to spend money.

I think there was only one black flag needed to control the boats over early at the start. With 17 racers and three heats per race, they ran and scored 51 total heats over the 3 days. 

The winds were WNW most of the weekend and the left side of the course usually had more wind. This meant most sailors headed left, got lifted as they neared the shore, and hoped for a header before they ran out of pond. If the header didn’t arrive as they tacked to port, they were met with a train of starboard tack boats and had to weave and dodge their way back to the right. This led to lots of fouls as judging those tight spaces from 40 meters away proved to be a challenge.  

The racing?  Peter Feldman dominated the first day with bullets for all 6 races. Incredible pointing ability. Here's an example of his dominance: On one race he became tangled with another boat and had drifted back to last place at the first mark. He passed a couple boats on the downwind leg and then passed everyone else on the next beat. Maybe it was the dry feet.

Feldman became the national champion, with Mark Golison second and Chris Davidson third (from San Diego by way of Australia). You might recall that Golison and Davidson both sailed in the Arizona leg of the Region 8 Traveller’s Trophy event at Estrella Lake in January. Golison won that one with Davidson finishing sixth.

Editor's note: Thanks to Rod for bringing home this report and pictures. Where did he finish? 35th, but with a smile. The other Arizona sailor was Bob Kruft. If you'd like to see a very long video of the third day of racing, sample this. Scores below (click on it to see bigger version).