Bruce Golison (l.) finishes just ahead of brother Mark (r.) for overall 1-2 result in Lido 14s
Alamitos Bay Yacht Club
Fourth of July Regatta
Including 2012 U.S. Sailing Area J Multihull Championship
June 30-July 1, 2012 Long Beach, Calif.
July 1, 2012When brothers battle on the water
LONG BEACH, Calif.
If you think sailing on a lazy summer day is dull---oh, brother!
A pair of local sailing veterans, Bruce and Mark Golison, made it more interesting than one might expect in a Lido 14 fleet when the former outfought the latter in the last of seven races Sunday to claim one of the traditional titles in Alamitos Bay Yacht Club's Fourth of July Regatta.
And that, despite light winds of 5 to 10 knots, was just part of some intense competition that became a family affair. While the Golisons were dueling tacks and jibes inside on the bay course, Stan Gibbs, another familiar hand, won the Cal 20 class outside in the harbor while his son Sawyer, 13, was winning the Naples Sabot A class inside.
Then there was Bill Westland and his son Alex, 16, who extended their Day 1 lead to win the U.S. Sailing Area J Multihull Championship for the Alter Cup, a tuneup for the Formula 18 Worlds that will be contested on the same waters Sept. 7-15.
Overall, there were 101 boats in 10 classes, 58 of them Sabots.
Bruce Golison, with Dina Corsi as crew, has won an Etchells North American championship and other honors in small keelboats, "but I was never a great dinghy sailor," he said. "Mark was always better."
Mark also is three years younger and his crew, Jennifer, his wife of 19 years, noted that "their mother always told them that brothers don't protest each other" in races.
They had opportunities Sunday, as longtime campaigner Stu Robertson brought the Lido 14 class battle built into a tight three-way match, swapping the lead late in the last four-lap race across the bay.
At one point Mark Golison held a short lead until rival Kevin Thomas told him he had touched the windward mark.
"I didn't know I'd touched it," Mark said. "Kevin didn't protest me, but I know him and trusted what he told me, so I did a penalty turn."
That dropped Mark to third place behind Thomas and Bruce Golison, and then Robertson seized the lead on the next-to-last lap. Unfortunately, Robertson thought it was the last lap and, at the top of the leg, turned right toward the finish line instead of left to the windward mark, sailing himself out of the fight.
Later, it didn't matter when he and Mark were both disqualified on their protests over a port-starboard collision earlier in the race. Although the jury ruled that Mark was wrong as the port-tack boat, Robertson also was DSQ'd for not trying to avoid a crash.
Meantime, Bruce Golison had dropped back to sixth place in the closely bunched fleet before launching a remarkable comeback marked by a serious tacking and jibing duel with his bud leading to a four-boat-length margin at the finish.
No hard feelings. "It was fun," they agreed in concert.
Their late mom would have been pleased.
The event is one of ABYC's four traditional holiday sailfests, along with last month's Memorial Day Regatta and the Labor Day and Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) regattas yet to come.
Class winners
(one discard)
FORMULA 18s (12 boats; Area J Multihull Championships)---Bill Westland/Alex Westland, ABYC, 2-1-1-(4)-2-1-1, 9 points.
CAL 20 (8)---Stan Gibbs/Chuck Clay, ABYC, (5)-1-2-2-1-1-1, 8.
CORONADO 15s (5)---Vincent Paternoster/Vadim Mantelzak, SouthCoast Corinthian YC, 1-1-1-1, 4.
LIDO 14-A (12)---Bruce Golison/Dina Corsi, ABYC, (3)-1-3-2-2-3-1, 12.
LIDO 14-B (4)---Butch Michel/Melody Wong, SSC, 1-1-1-1-(2)-2-1, 7.
NAPLES SABOTS-A (9)---Sawyer Gibbs, ABYC, 5/scoring penalty-1-2-6-1-(10/DSQ)-3, 18.
NAPLES SABOTS-B (13)---Cole Pomeroy, NewportHarbor YC, 1-1-1-1-(8)-2-3, 9.
NAPLES SABOTS-C1 (18)---Erik Hou, NHYC, 2-(17)-2-2-3-7-1, 17.
NAPLES SABOTS-C2 (11)---Joshua Means, Bahia Corinthian YC, 2-3-1-2-3-1-(4), 12.
NAPLES SABOTS-C3 (7)---Hailey Horton, NHYC, 2-1-(4)-4-1-2-2, 12.
Results, photos and more
CHAIRMAN
Bruce Johnston
MEDIA CONTACT
Rich Roberts
310.835.2526
cell 310.766.6547
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Mike Wood's Cal 20 heads for leeward gate off the beach
Formula 18s round windward mark with floating crane in background
Jet packer checked in, too
Stan Gibbs and crew Chuck Clay won 4 of the 7 Cal 20 races
Golison brothers were never
far apart in the Lido 14s
Bill Westland and son-crew
Alex won the Formula 18s
Hi-res photo gallery