SANTANA 20 NATIONALS: KERR DID IT AGAIN

North Sails Helps Andrew Kerr Win His 13th National Title

The 2019 Santana 20 National Championships were hosted by the Triton YC and Eugene YC’s on Fernridge reservoir in Eugene, Oregon 22 teams from Mexico, Colorado, Washington and Oregon were challenged with a seven race series over the course of three days with winds varying from 5 to 12 knots.

North Sails expert Andrew Kerr coordinated a practice day with on-the-water videos and a post-racing comprehensive debrief with all teams in attendance.

“The practice day with Andrew coaching the teams was very well received and helped them to get ready for the Nationals”, said Kerry Poe, North Sails Oregon

The racing featured a lot of gear shifting, particularly powering up in lulls and then responding to a quick build in the velocity. The goal was to be in phase at all times and connect the velocity upwind and downwind.

Starts were hotly contested. Team Disaster Area sailed with Kerry Poe on the helm, boat owner and tactician Andrew Kerr in the middle and former Class President, Phillip Infelise on the foredeck. “We focused on starting in the front row in the biggest space we could find, rarely did we start at the favored end. We would be toward it but in a lower density area so we could get off the line in phase and sail fast to the velocity and next shift”, said Andrew.

Patience paid as it generally always does on a lake. Very often a detrimental 30 degree shift would come in and the key was to wait it out until the wind came back to the median heading to then tack in the best gust of wind. Like many venues, it was critical to have your head outside the boat at all times to not miss big opportunities.

“The North designs gave us excellent speed in all conditions. The vision window in the genoa enabled our team to see starboard tack boats early and formulate a solid game plan for our boat to boat tactics.

The mainsail gave us all the flexibility of speed and shape that we needed with playing the backstay and the aft lowers. The spinnaker was stable and fast in all conditions. These designs have won the Nationals many times!,” said Andrew.

North Sails customer Evert Slijper and his team What about Bob? showed excellent speed and won race six. In fact, North-powered teams won four out of the total seven races. North Sails customers Jorge Murrietta’s Mexico and James Stinson’s Creamsicle also had excellent speed throughout the regatta. Congratulations to team Disaster Area for winning the Nationals with three bullets and consistent scores. This was Andrew Kerr’s 13th win at the Nationals. Very impressive!

Learn more about North Sails Santana 20 designs.