Alter Cup 2011 on AHPC Vipers for Matt Strubble & Damon Lacasella

Photos: Steve Jost – Didn’t have the time to publish it last week, but here it is. The Alter Cup 2011 on AHPC Vipers. What a good job AHPC and Red Gear Racing is doing in USA supporting the Youth Championship and the Alter Cup for the 3rd consecutive year.
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Report and images From US sailing.
LONG BEACH, Calif. (June 18, 2011) – Skipper Matt Struble (San Diego, Calif.) won his fourth Hobie Alter Trophy Saturday afternoon on an exciting final day of racing at US SAILING’s U.S. Multihull Championship. Struble and crew Damon Lacasella (San Diego, Calif.) withstood a late push from Taylor Reiss (Panama City, Fla.) and Matthew Whitehead (Panama City, Fla.) to claim the title. The 2011 championship was hosted by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and raced in Viper F16s on San Pedro Bay.

Struble and Lacasella finished third and second in today’s two races, which was good enough to hold off last week’s U.S. Youth Multihull Champions Reiss and Whitehead. The winners finished with 29 points through 11 races. They won by a point despite Reiss and Whitehead winning five of the 11 races, including four of the final six.

Stronger winds prevailed Saturday, which suited Struble and Lacasella. Wind speed increased from 9 knots earlier in the day to 18 knots by later this afternoon.
“The whole week we were hanging on by a thread with the light winds,” said Struble. “Our weakness was being too heavy for this boat and most of our competitors were in the prime weight category. Our strength was our tactics. We took chances when we needed to and were conservative at the right times.”

Struble has won all four U.S. Multihull Championships he has competed in. He won three straight titles from 2001 to 2003. Each title has been won with a different crewmate and in a different boat class.
“I’ve never seen the Viper F16s before,” said Struble. “I didn’t set out to win with different crews. It just worked out that way,” he added.

Struble attributes his personal sailing program and training in the A-Class Catamaran to his success, despite no previous experience in the F16. The 2010 A-Class Catamaran North American Champion is looking forward to competing in the 2011 A-Class World Championships in Denmark this August. Struble is also a former Iceboat World Champion.

For final standings, recaps, photos and more, visit the event website at https://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/USMHChampionship.htm.