- Local News for Southern Sailors - December 2001 Next Story
One-design at its finest at Jacksonville
By Doran Cushing
There IS a reason why one-design racing has blossomed throughout the sailing world in boats bigger than dinghies. That reason is squeaky tight competition among boats that are as close to equal as possible...without spending a fortune for boat, crew, and sails.
The Florida Yacht Club's Atlantic Coast Championships for Melges 24 Oct. 20-21 was a showcase of what is right in the racing world—27 boats ranging from California, Canada, and the northeastern states traveling to Florida and joined in competition by dozens of regional raceboats. The only thing missing was the foreign fleet, which had its plans changed when Lauderdale Yacht Club backed out of hosting the Melges 24 Worlds, which were subsequently moved from a mid-November date in Ft. Lauderdale to Key West in late January.
Yeh, yeh, yeh...we always talk about close racing, right? This championship was decided about four times on the last upwind leg in a dying breeze. At one point Doug Fisher's team had the winning combination—only to get hammered on the right (as in "correct") side when it became windless and wrong on the closing leg.
 and Pollywog
Jeff Ecklund of Ft. Lauderdale, sailing a brand- new boat with Harry Melges at the helm, had been unbeatable through three races, but this was a five-race series. Harry and Jeff's Star team joined Fisher on that tormenting "right" side, and both boats finished out of the top ten in the closing race, and both dropped from leading the series overall during that race to a respectable but disappointing third (Ecklund) and fifth (Fisher) place.
"We were headed to what looked like gold," Fisher said, "but it turned into fool's gold."
Olympian Morgan Reeser of Miami, crewing for Neil Sullivan of Annapolis, MD, had opened the two-day event with a convincing 1-3-2 record, and it looked like the winner would be decided between Sullivan's M-Fatic or Ecklund's Star, which led M-Fatic by two points after three races. No one else was close with Fisher at 13 points, Jacksonville's Rick Peper at 17, and Chicago's Paula Zubrzycki at 18.
The moderate winds of day one held up for day two's first race before fading entirely at the end of race two. The NOAA forecast was wrong. NOAA don't know-a.
With Doug Clark of New York at the helm, Zubrzycki's First Crush posted a second to start day two. Also sailing a new boat, Argyle Campbell's California team aboard Rock 'n Roll took the bullet as both M-Fatic and Star tanked race four and opened the door for at least three other boats.
As the closing race started, the long shot was First Crush, trailing leader M-Fatic by four points, in a losing spot on all of the tie-breakers, and with two other boats also ahead on points going into the final race.
"We found the velocity, and we were patient," Zubrzycki said after winning the race and the championship. "This is our crew for Key West."
|
 Doran Cushing photos
That crew includes boat owner Paula, Clark ('the point man"), Kenny Wolfe of Austin, TX, Peter Renehan of Greenwich, CT, and CC Imbrie of Miami. The owner is in the wine business, which accounts for the boat name.
"They're all dinghy sailors from college," Zubrzycki said. "We didn't really have a lot of local knowledge. We just took it on as a challenge... gearing up for the worlds."
M-Fatic clawed back to sixth, finishing one point behind First Crush. Ecklund drifted in at 12th-place to protect the third-place trophy with Campbell in fourth, two points back.
Fisher trailed Star across the line in 13th place and finished fifth overall...despite some bad luck early in the regatta.
"In the first race we were hiking hard when three guys went into the water. The lifeline had broken," Fisher said. "That cost us about eight boats. Then we hit a crab pot."
This event has traditionally been a part of the November King's Day Regatta but was moved to October to avoid a conflict with the schedule at Ft. Lauderdale (which ultimately was cancelled based on a reported concern about entries...or the lack thereof).
"The change in the worlds probably cost us 20 boats," said race chairman Pat Lambert. "Almost all of the European boats were using Jacksonville as the port of entry. He added, "We were sorry to see that go. We don't often see a 40 to 50-boat fleet on the river."
 Oct. 20-21 St. Johns River Jacksonville, FL Florida YC 1. P. Zubrzycki/First Crush 21; ;2. N. Sullivan/M-Fatic 22; 3. J. Ecklund/Star 29; 4. A. Campbell/Rock 'n Roll 31; 5. D. Fisher/Pollywog 33; 6. B. Ayres/Monsoon 33; 7. D. Kessler/Liberty 2 38; 8. R. Peper/Spank Me Again 40; 9. M. Toppa/Buzzard 43; 10. F. McCarthy/Gang of Four 47; 11. W. Pignolet/Pumbaa 48; 12. S. Suddath/Poppa B 54; 13. G. Umberger/Minnetonka 2 69; 14. D. Thome/Nobody's Girl 74; 15. R. Reigart/Suzanne 79; 16. J. Lucas/Beelzabubba 81; 17. H. Gregory/no name 84; 18. J. Scherlock/no name 90; 19. J. Hyatt/Gone Mad 95; 20. B. Harrison/My Dixie Wrecked 97; 21. S. Jones/Sick Puppy 99; 22. B. Rogner/Hurricane 106; 23. M.A. Ward/Zoom 112; 24. R. Wallace/no name 120; 25. R. Hamm/Bad Influence 123; 26. H. Pickering/Chacal 123; 27. S. Grote/Warp Speed 132 |
Copyright © 2001 Southwinds Media.
All rights reserved.