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The 2007 Coronado 15 Nac's were held over Labor Day weekend at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, Ca. 14 Boats showed up for the 3 day event. With hot temperatures expected for the weekend, the wind forecast was not looking good. Friday was the Syd Corp (or qualifier) races held with warm temps and plenty of sea breeze (winds were between 12-18) on the race course. Terence Gallagher won all 3 races and took home the Syd Corp trophy. Saturday was another warm day in Long Beach, with winds a little lighter in the 10-14 range. There was 4 races scheduled and David Rumbaugh with crew Anne Jaeschke pulled out a big lead over the fleet with scores of 1,2,1,1. There was a battle for the next 4 spots which saw Terence in 2nd with 14 pts, Alex Fishman in 3rd with 15 pts, Mike Shea in 4th with 17 pts, and Joe O'Reilly in 5th with 18 pts. Sundays 3 races saw very light winds with bumpy seas (thanks to all of the motor bo ats on the water that day). Mike Shea showed lots of speed and good tactics posting a 1, 1, 3 on the final day to edge out the father and son team (the son does the driving) of Steve and Alex Fishman for second overall. With scores of 3, 3, 2 on the final day David Rumbaugh and Anne Jaeschke were able to hold on for the overall lead and brought the C15 North American Championship to Northern California. This was David and Anne's 3rd attempt at the crown together. They took 3rd two years ago at Hungtington Lake, and 2nd last year on Yaquina Bay in Oregon.
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2006 C-15 North Americans For the fifth time in a row... The Sprouts Win.
2005 C-15 North Americans For the fourth time in a row, Barrett and Randy Sprout Win Again!!!!
2004 Coronado 15 North Americans Barrett and Randy Sprout Win Again! Powered by North Sails. Report by Randy Sprout , Commodore 2004
2004 Coronado 15 North American Championships June 18, 19, &20th It’s Friday the 18th and I’m still wondering if Barrett can make it into the Nashville airport in time to race at all. He’s been hung up in Los Angeles for bad weather in Chicago, and now has spent the night waiting to get out of Chicago. There are 18 Coronado 15 boats out drifting the lovely Woods Reservoir, and the Holder boat is walking away from the fleet. I’m getting bitten by every kind of bug including a new one you can’t see, just feel...No See Ums. What a great name for a pest! Then there are chiggers, something that also just attacks from the grass directly into your underwear. I am really beginning to wonder if the 2050 mile drive has been worth it. The fleet has been very understanding and they are eagerly looking forward to racing against Dawn as skipper and me as crew, and leaving Barrett in Chicago. The boats all drift in as I get the call from the airport, he is here, and we are on for Saturday. We need to petition to get into the Championship Fleet, but we are racing! The remaining time is spent with our boat upside down in the grass polishing. If we are forced to drift, it’s just got to be done. A beer trailer seems to help.
Saturday morning and we have had our fleet meeting, with 19 crews now waiting for battle. The PRO George Goodall has been sweating bullets just thinking about another day of drifting, but he’s got some wind to work with today, maybe 2 knots. He’s a real pro, now going for his regional ticket, and he has, at his own expense, driving up from Fort Walton, Florida. Wow, I want to thank him for that effort!
Race 2 and we are at the pin end again when a 20 degree veer comes through with 10 seconds to go for the gun. Ouch! This one is going to hurt! Jim Claffey has the fleet by 20 boat lengths and is stretching his lead. We are working our way up from 8th with the Chicken boat just stepping all over us. Britton and McCullough know how to roll tack and they hit every shift. On the reach here’s a new player, John Lovin and Brian Slater have come up with just right combination of sail trim to roll us. The Holders are still ahead and it’s starting to look dismal. Barrett looks over as we take a header back to middle and says “It looks like the local boys may take the trophy this time Dad.” I’m really getting nervous about the boat speed that Claffey seems to have at all points of sail and he takes the 1st place horn by 30 boat lengths. Fortunately race 2 is a long Olympic course and we finally fight our way back into 2nd place. The cheering section has had a few more beers and their cheers have amped up a bit, but Jim Claffey has shown his full potential and he’s a master of light winds. He grew up with light winds!
Race 4 and we are determined to follow the lead of the red boat and Gentleman Jim Claffey. We both tack off the start line and dive deeply to the right side along the shoreline. The rest of the boats are looking better and better on the left and we are tempted to tack over to consolidate; but Claffey keeps on running right and increases his lead. It starts to feel like we are really over standing and this could be the quite an adjustment, with the 2 leaders bringing up the rear. Wham! Here comes the shift Jim has been waiting for and we get our chance to lea bow him. Nuts, he rolls right over us and the lea bow fails miserably. He’s first at the windward by 2 boat lengths and we try to cover and distract him all the way to the leeward mark. We finally jibe and duck to the left and get an overlap just before the 2 boat circle. This is close racing at its best, with a gentleman who is really good. The college training pays off for Barrett. I lose the pole on the take down but I’m hiking and get the jib in and the pole has to wait. Thank goodness the trolley Bunji holds the pole, until we tack out. The game is still not over as we have to roll tack every shift to keep ahead of the red boat all the way in for another 1st. The first day of Championship racing is over, we have 1,2,2,1 and Jim has 4,1,1,2 but with the throw out we are tied.
Sunday, after a short postponement, the wind comes up, but stays light. The first race finds us in the middle of the line, having learned the hard way about last minute shifts. Our plan is to stay in front of the red boat at all cost. We get a great start; hit the first shift on the money, then we look back to see the red boat mired in a pack of boats trying to break out. Whew. Then, here comes the Utley boat. They have the taste of winning and they want some more. With a hint from Saturday’s racing they have really improved their down wind speed and we have a great race to the finish 1 & 2. With the red boat in 9th we can finally accept the cheers from the cheering section and Charlie Quest comes over to tell us “You have done it again!” 8 years of racing, 8 North American’s, and now we have the cup again for the 3rd time to take back to California.
In the Cabrillo Fleet the winners were Bill Riner & his niece Jennifer who put together two 1st places, a 2nd, and a 3rd to let us all know they are coming up to the Championship Fleet next year at Huntington Lake in Northern California. Out of the 19 boats racing this year there were 11 boats with “family” teams and 3 women skippers. This I believe is what Frank Butler thought might happen when he designed our little racing sloop, and I think it’s great that families can race together all over the USA and Canada. Now if we could just get a fleet going in Acapulco! Many times during our races we would look over and see the Cabrillo racers right up in the hunt. Justin & Amanda Preyer caught fire on Sunday during these last 2 races and I am sure we will be seeing more wins from this team.
for coming here and giving me the chance to race against the best!” I just love this attitude within our Coronado 15 Fleet. Those of you that have never raced in the NAC must set aside some time and energy just to see what Championship Racing really feels like. It’s wonderful to win, but to compete with the best, and know that they all have committed to due their very best, that’s awesome! With only 2 points separating 1st and 2nd, and then 3rd and 4th in a dead heat you can see that there were a lot of lead changes during these races. I should be great fun to see everyone back in Lake Huntington in 2005. I know Steve Fishman and Charlie Quest will put on a great regatta!
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2002 Coronado 15 North Americans Report by Randy Sprout
Barrett & Randy Sprout
Win Coronado 15 North American Championship
Ok. It's qualifier day 1 of the North American Coronado 15 Championships. The wind is up with the Fort Walton Yacht Club indicator pegged at 18 knots with gusts to 25 knots. Barrett and I have planed out to the race course at a solid 10 knots, throwing a rooster tail behind hull 3776, and yelling over the wind blast, and the woo effect coming off the shrouds and center board below. Even after putting in new gasket strips, we have 85-degree gulf water shooting up out of the center well. We got a great start at the boat end and pinched up 3 boats, which have all tacked over into never-land. We just rounded in first at the windward mark, with Doug Britton, the senior from Georgia Tech, right behind. Tom Forge and his excellent skipper, Karen Kubleski is next with Tom in full "YeHaw" voice. All the last 100 yards we are "discussing" how to keep the boat upright at the jibe. The last words I hear from my skipper are "board up", then the deadly roll, not a gentle sluing, just a flop. The water is warm, the Georgia Tech kids are prematurely celebrating their good fortune, and I am trying to figure out how we can get back into this race that we had come 2000 miles to sail. Within minutes we are surrounded by A-Fleet racers, then B -Fleet, all with some opinions about how they could have, or should have avoided the same swim. Gentleman Jim Claffey and his lovely crew Trish Rutan, sail by with the quiet air of authority and their board well down. They went on to win the Syd Corp Trophy. Then came 2 time Champion, Jim Holder and son Jeff, who had "been there before." Many of us not only got right up, but got to right the boats again and again. It was of little comfort to the bruised crews to hear the devastating news that one of our super stars, Mark Elliot, with his 10 year old daughter Blair, had turtled and sank their awesome black boat. Back at the dock licking our wounds, the talk turns to who has the biggest scrapes and bruises. Dorothy Williams has a great design, dully dubbed the Dorothy ladder, at the end of her transom, which many will copy for day 2.
First time C-15 racers Bill Baker and son show how easy it is to flip on day one of NAC.
Brent Purcell makes it look easy, as he wins the Cabrillo Fleet Trophy by 3 points.
Blair Elliot passing Barrett Sprout by inches for her 1st NAC win in her very first NAC. Day 2 and the winds have turned fluky and light. The first race of the real event and the leaders split the course. With the wind at 8 knots veering, and then building to the right, if you went left, it was over. Three boats were neck and neck at the finish, 10 year, Blair Elliot, flying downwind at 65 pounds, soaking wet. Barrett and I squeak by Gentleman Jim Claffey at the pin for a second. We are stoked, and ready for anything. Race 2 is a total humiliation for us. The boats smart enough to go left first, then out over the point on the right, get a huge 30-degree lift, both ways. Jim, in the red boat, sails flawlessly, hits every shift got a spectacular lift off the point to win 1st easily. Barrett and I are in10th at the windward mark and have to crawl back to 5th at the end. The 3rd race is between the shifts and inside the now deadly point with 30-50 degree lifts that can make or break you. The college boys love this stuff, no compass, just seat of the pants and lots of roll in their tacks and jibes. The red, white, and blue boat, 1776, of Glenn McIntosh and crew hits every shift, working up through the fleet from port start that took the entire fleet by surprise, placing 3rd. It was all very patriotic, but we were now in 3rd position, with 11 points and only 2 races and one-day remaining. Blair Elliot gets her 2nd bullet and we all get a "lesson". Barrett & Randy just ahead of Jim Holder and Doug Briton on the 1st race of the 3rd day. Day 3 and the wind is back out of the South at18 knots and expected to go right, which will mean we may get out of the fluky point area, and back into the big bay. The first race is still inside the cove, which by now everyone knows will involve triangular reaching marks. Those who know how to get the C-15 up on plane will do very well. Barrett & I get a great start from the boat end, even though every one else is at the pin. The reach mark is almost as far as the windward mark and some get confused. By the first mark we are well in the lead, only to get "rolled" by the expert Jim Holder on the reach. Coming out of the 2nd mark we split to the right, get the magic lift, and pull out a win. This first win gets a scream from shore, as my wife Dawn figures it out, even though she's had her eye glued to her video camera. Remember this is my girlfriend of 35 years, who towed our boat, by herself, to Georgia in 1999, so I get all mushy.
FINAL RESULTS - CORONADO 15 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Championship Fleet Sailwave Scoring Software 1.42
Here are the best sailors in North America and they all race a Coronado 15!!!! Now I would like to personally thank all those wonderful racers that got between the black boat and us during that last day! Third place was Doug Britton, with a stock C-15 off the rack from Georgia Tech, which proves "You got to point them in the right direction". Fourth place were Tom Forge and "bruise winning" Karen Kubleski, who came in 2nd in the final race. Fifth place were the ever-dangerous Jim Claffey and Trish Rutan. Dawn and Jeff Utley with help from fleet 51, did a splendid job of
organizing the event and a terrific job of measuring and weighing. I
would also like to thank the great race committee from Fort Walton Yacht
Club, with their help, the black boat will live on and the world's most
dangerous 10-year-old will be back next year as an "experienced"
racer. 3776, with the Sprouts on board, will welcome all Coronado 15
Racers to a week of Championship competition in Half Moon Bay. Dr. Charles
Quest has a great group of racers, all helping each other in the very
best C-15 spirit. I can't wait to see a Cabrillo fleet of 30 strong.
2001 Stan Miller Perpetual Trophy
Barrett & Randy Sprout Win The Stan Miller Perpetual Trophy Barrett & Randy Sprout returned from ABYC over Memorial Day weekend with the Stan Miller C-15 Perpetual Trophy and winning scores of 1,2,1,(4),2,2,1 for a total of 9 points. They raced against such luminaries as Allison Jolly, Benny Schwegler, Walt Prue, and Bob Anderson. This was the first time this father/son team had seen Allison in action driving a Coronado 15, and according to Barrett, "She is just awesome!" Benny put the trophy in perspective when he commented that the first time he won this trophy, Barrett was 2 years old. Photo left to right, Mike Shea,
Bob Anderson, Phil Toth, Barrett Sprout, Randy Sprout, Allison Jolly,
Benny Schwegler, and David Marsh.
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The breeze begins to fill in around 11:00 and we are at the pin end, hugely favored, with Charlie & Alex Quest trying not to hit the pin at the gun. Beep, we are moving in 3 knots of breeze. Just keep the boat flat. Don’t trim too tight, concentrate, this one counts. Barrett scallops up on several boats, and these local crews are not giving an inch. The red boat, with Jim Claffey and Trish Rutan, has peeled off and gone over to explore the right, Doug Britton and his “winged” crew John McCullough are not going away, they continue to hit the shifts, and are right on our heals at the windward mark. We pull away a little downwind and I’m thanking the Friday polishing of bottom and boards. Jim Holder and son Jeff are still threatening, especially in this light breeze, and their boat is flying downwind. The horn goes off for our 1st and the cheering section, a group of 3 Catalina 22’s, erupts with horns and applause, not just for us, but for every boat that crosses the finish. What a great concept, encouragement for every competitor, in every boat!
Race 3 and we are at the boat end when a 15 degree left shift comes through and the red boat with Claffey are way out front on the pin end and on the left this time. We are working our way up through the fleet when the local heroes, Dawn & Jeff Utley, start showing us how it’s done on their lake. They have us by 2 boat lengths at the last windward mark and it’s looking really bad down wind. Within 25 yards of the finish line, we are on their hip pushing them up toward the boat end of the line, when a slight lift came through throwing us into a quick jibe and giving us the 2nd by 2 inches. Jim Claffey and his crew are elated that they now have 2 bullets in a row. Jim has made it a 2 boat regatta and we are now forced to race in his same wind and on his side of the lake. This is not a situation to inspire anything but a slight panic.
Saturday night and we eat like we know what fried tomatoes and “pulled meat” actually are. The great Southern menus from the Highland Yacht Club Chefs actually put meat on your bones right now! I still don’t know what that final meal was on Sunday, but it had a great Cajon taste. They are real quick down there to tell any gullible Yankee about how they picked up the meat on the road as they drove to the regatta. I’m not quite sure what that means? Bill Riner, Dawn and Jeff Utley have done a great job getting this event to be really first class. The fleet awards $400 to the Highland Yacht Club as a thank you. The beer trailer was a big hit with many sailors willing to guard it overnight.
The 2nd race on Sunday we get pushed up over early and have to dip the line. Working from dead last through 19 boats is ugly! Everyone gets to step on us as we battle just to see clean air. Lucky for us it’s a long race. With the red boat 30 boat lengths in front of everyone we are really happy to have won that last race. That doesn’t seem to matter to anyone else in front of us. We get into a great tacking duel with Jim & Jeff Holder going up to the finish and are just able to peel them off onto a downwind boat. Justin and Amanda Preyer have a 3rd in the last race and they want a second now. We duck their transom, and then get a lift right up to the finish, a 2nd place for us.
At the awards ceremony Doug Britton said what I have always wanted to say. After thanking the race committee and the cooks, he said: “I want to thank all the Competitors
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