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So how big a deal was the first victory for a team from New Zealand in the Nespresso International 18 Skiff Regatta hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club?
"We got on the news [Down Under]," skipper Alex Vallings said Saturday.
The Kiwis had already clinched first place with a pair of first places Friday, so they didn't even have to sail the last two of 10 races, in which they scored a close second to the USA's Howie Hamlin followed by a runaway win after a close call with a San Francisco Bay ferry boat at the start.
Hamlin suffered a poor start in that incident but recovered well to place third and, in discarding his two worst of 10 races---both on Friday---fought his way back to second place overall four and five points head of Australian veterans John (Woody) Winning and Grant Rollerson, respectively.
After a few blustery days on the The Bay, conditions settled down slightly to a shifty 15-20 knots.
"It was the crew, really," Vallings, 41, said, "Josh and Kitty doing a good job."
That would be Josh McCormack, 24) and Chris Kitchen, 28.
"We hoped to do well if we had good breeze. It hasn't been that windy, just very lumpy. We hoped to do well. We haven't had a lot of good breeze at home … [and] it hasn't been that windy here, just very lumpy."
He can expect more of the same if plans proceed to stage the Mark Foy Regatta on these same waters during open dates in the America's Cup next September. The 18-Foot Skiff racing in its present form was started in 1892 by Mark Foy, a keen sailor and founder of Foys Department Store in central Sydney, Australia, and in recent years has come to rival the Aussies' JJ Giltinan classic in stature.
The same Kiwi team placed fourth and fifth here the previous two years, but "this is the first time we've had this boat here," Vallings said. "It's a lot faster."
It especially looked so in the final race's runaway win, and made a mark for New Zealand's emergence as a power in the class otherwise dominated by Australians.
Another New Zealand team led by David McDiarmid finished fifth overall.
"It's great," said Winning, an Aussie. "The class is coming of age. They have the technology, and we want to keep the money equation out of it. There are a lot of world-class sailors---America's Cup guys, Volvo racers and so on---that they paid well for sailing, but they also do this for nothing. That helps the development."
But … Kiwis? They sell T-shirts that say, "My favorite teams are New Zealand … and anyone playing Australia."
Winning chuckled. "We have fun competing against each other," he said.
Hamlin and his crew of Matt Noble and Matt McKinlay also would like to see Americans grow in the class, especially with such an ideal venue to offer … even if one should keep an eye out for ferry boats.
"That's just sailing in San Francisco Bay," McKinlay said.
The final top five results…
(18 boats; 10 races; two discards)
1. C-Tech, Alex Vallings/Chris Kitchen/Josh McCormack, New Zealand, 1-1-(3)-(6)-1-2-1-1-2-1, 10 points.
2. CST Composites, Howard Hamlin/Matt Noble/Matt McKinlay, USA, 4-5-1-3-3-4-(19/DNF)-(12)-1-3, 24.
3. Yandoo, John Winning/David Gibson/Andrew Hay, Australia, (5)-3-4-5-(19/DNF)-5-2-3-4-2, 28.
4. Mounts Bay W.A., Grant Rollerson/Justin Healey/Marco Schurman, Australia, 3-4-6-1-2-(19/DNF)-3-4-(8)-6, 29.
5. Yamaha, David McDiarmid/Andrew Archibald/Mark Overington, New Zealand, 10-(13)-9-4-4-(19/DNF)-4-2-6-5, 44.
