Meier drives Medicine Man to win in light-air pursuit race

LONG BEACH — On a day that dawned with only a whisper of a breeze, the Long Beach Yacht Club race committee was able to pull off the 2016 Two Gates Pursuit Race with skipper Lisa Meier taking first overall and first in Class A on Bob Lane’s Andrews 63, Medicine Man, in this annual first-of-the-year race hosted by Long Beach YC. Twenty-nine skippers and their teams hung out as the race committee waited for a bit of consistent breeze to get the fleet of various types of sailboats to the start line. The race was an inverted-start PHRF race where the slowest boats start first and the fastest boats start last in hopes of catching up. After an hour-and-a-half postponement, the race committee started the first boat on the shorter, 5.17-nautical-mile Course 2 as opposed to the usual 13.2-nautical-mile course, which, if chosen, would have had most of the fleet finishing in the dark. “This was really a privilege,” Meier said, “to have an offer to sail with Medicine Man’s crew who are some of sailing’s best. I had an incredible time on an incredible boat with the unbeatable support of my comrades. It was a privilege to drive this boat today.” Medicine...