- Local News for Southern Sailors - March 2002 Next Story
Diversity joins adversity at St. Pete NOOD By Doran Cushing
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Bring together some 160 boats in 13 classes on two courses in February and you have the diversity of the Sailing World St. Petersburg NOOD (as in National Offshore One-design). Throw in a mix of conditions ranging from tedious ghosting to gear-breaking bashes and you have what is becoming the weather tradition for St. Pete in mid-February—a spectrum of wind and waves over three days of racing on Tampa Bay Feb. 15-17. |
The fleets have changed slightly each year. The J/22s opted for New Orleans several years ago, but the Melges 24s picked St. Pete over Miami Beach this year and became the largest class on the bay. And for the first time, there were classes for the Olson 30, Hobie 33, and the Corsair trimarans (racing with PHRF handicaps).
In the 22-boat Sonar class, able-bodied teams battled up and down the course with disabled crews. Race one was captured by a Canadian Paralympic team skippered by Ken Kelly, and they won the race by more than five minutes. Kelly's team went on to finish sixth overall, trailed by Paralympians John Ross-Duggan and Paul Callahan in seventh and eighth places. Peter Galloway of Wilton, CT, dominated the class with five bullets in eight races.
At least three classes settled the score in the closing race Sunday. When the 22 J/24s came to the line for their sixth and final race, Peter Bream's Jacksonville-based Tarheel had a modest lead on points, but there are no throwouts at the NOOD. A tenth-place finish, combined with Steve Wood's bullet, put Wood's Tasmanian Devil over the top by two points. Larry Flinn clawed back from a 16 in race five to finish third. Each of the top five skippers had a double-digit finish in the series...Tarheel's second one did them in.
Three-peat NOOD J/24 champion Bream said, "We had our string broken, but we'll be back next year to start another one."
Kevin Knight of Dublin, OH, held a three-point lead going into the eighth and final race in the Ultimate 20 Class. Bob Bilthouse of Odessa, FL, picked up the closing bullet but needed one more boat between himself and Knight for the tie and tie-breaker win (which would have gone to the final "who beat who last"). Knight prevailed by a point.
At the other end of the scoring spectrum, Bill Buckles and Liquor Box continued their dominance in the Tartan 10 Class with six bullets. Liquor Box, along with tri Southwinds in the Corsair fleet, elected not to sail their closing races and maintained the winning points edge. Other class winners with cozy leads included Ed and Scott Peters' Abbott 33 Tigress in the Level 123 Class, John Esposito's Hustler in the J/29 Class, Doug Fisher's Polywog in the Melges 24 Class, and Charlie Clifton in the SR MAX Class.
Finishing second in the Melges 24 Class—some 26 points behind Fisher—was Doug Kessler of Marietta, GA. Kessler was hit on the starting line during the fifth race and was forced to withdraw due to a broken rudder. The RC awarded Kessler redress in the incident, and he edged fellow Lake Lanier sailor Mike Krantz by one-and-a-half points with the average of Kessler's earlier finishes.
In the Level 123 Class—a variety of PHRF boats racing boat for boat with a "level" 123 rating—Tigress' closest competitor was a one-off 28-footer, Breeze, that looked like a small Henderson or Mumm sportboat. The crew challenged Tigress on the course but hit a finish mark in one race (and scored DNF) and were up the course in the closing race before returning to clear an OCS.
Crewing aboard Tigress were two sets of identical teenage twins—the grandsons of builder Bill Abbott and owner Ed Peters. Reflecting on the win, Peters said, "I just bought UK sails...brand spanking new. It made a super difference in the boat."
Bob Shingler of Flowery Branch, GA, finished 1-1-2 to edge local Bob Bozeman of St. Petersburg and Mike McGagh of League City, TX, for what may have been the first ever one-design regatta for Olson 30s in the region. Skip Boston of Grosse Point Woods, MI, edged his uncle, William Boston of Canada, by three points in the eight-boat S2 7.9 Class.
The conditions challenged the race committee as much as the sailors. Day one's wispy breeze forced a four-hour delay between races on the south course. Only one afternoon race was completed on the northern course. Day two brought building winds and waves as the racing began. Midway through the day the breeze was gusting over 20 knots, and the infamous Tampa Bay short, square chop slammed and slowed the lighter boats.
With half a dozen classes on each course and starts running about seven minutes apart, traffic was a major factor at mark roundings. On the southern course, a leeward mark too close to the starting line brought starboard starters into conflict with port rounders on a few occasions (and brought some unhappy comments from some skippers). In the closing race on the south course, the windward mark was used as the finish pin.
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"The sailing instructions said the finish line would be approximately 100 yards to weather of the windward mark," SR MAX sailor Bill Embree said. "I got caught in a pack of starboard Sonars rounding while I was finishing on port tack. It cost me two or three places."
On the northern course, Frank McCarthy's Melges 24 tangled with the RC boat's swim platform at the start of Saturday's second race. Score one hole for the platform and score McCarthy DNS for the remaining races. Earlier in the series, the J/24 fleet had a race tossed due to problems with a course change. The Melges 24s had multiple general recalls. A dragging mark on the south course Saturday was quickly addressed as the mark boat became the mark while a replacement mark was quickly set. Countless competitors snagged, hooked, and otherwise snared the upwind marks.
Sharing both a critical and positive view of the RC work, Lon Ethington of St. Petersburg said, "The St. Petersburg Yacht Club tried to do things right... sometimes they try too hard."
Crowded corners were common in the larger fleets at the NOOD. Dave Ellis photo
Corsair (8 races) 1. tri Southwinds/Cushing 20; ;2. Breaking Wind/Remmers 22; 3. Lucky Star/Rome 31; 4. Loose Canon/Blevins 38; 5. Lightning/Gregory 52; 6. No Limits/Smithwick 53; 7. Wavedancer/Carlson 65; 8. Tricycle/Zipperman 67; 9. Bellerophan/Povey and YO!/Smyth - dnc Henderson 30 (8 races) 1. New Wave/Carroll 11; 2. Speed Racer/Liebel 24; 3. Love Letter/Rattan 24; 4. Zero Gravity/DaLia 31; 5. Purple Haze/Walsh 40; 6. Cast of Thousands II/Irwin 42; 7. Say Uncle/Lemonds 62; 8. Judy/Gore 68; 9. Hot Licks/Brigham 72 Hobie 33 (8 races) 1. Mirage/Schaumloffel 20; 2. Predator/Segev 27; 3. Bandit/Benton 36; ;4. Coyote/Naughar 37; 5. Stray Cat/Mauri 38; 6. Jonathan Swift/Nolan 48; 7. One Stray Cat/Stewart 49; 8. Kaos/Brew 49; 9. Leaving Las Vegas/Attard 60 J/24 (6 races) 1. Tasmanian Devil/Wood 25; ;2. Tarheel/Bream 27; 3. Clearheader/Flinn 30; 4. Gizmo/Van Dalen 32; 5. More Greif/Turner 36; 6. Classic/Howard 38; 7. Party Reptile/Farmer 39; 8. Dr. Feelgood/Moore 44; 9. Pick-Up-Styx/Luscomb 57; 10. Two Fingers/Bosser 62; 11. Long Shot/Siewert 63; 12. Bart/Anderson 74; 13. Pigs In Hiding/Ethington 79; 14. Pistarkle/Myers 82; 15. Red Stripe/Davis 89; 16. Mobile Home/Rathbun 95; 17. Ragged Edge/Turton 96; 18. Mischief/Twomey 97; 19. Moxie/Mabe 104; 20. Triplicate/Giurintano 117;21. Krachen/Carroll 120; 21. Snickerz/Cowen 130 Level 123 (8 races) 1. Tigress/Peters 12; 2. Plain White Boat/J World Red 21; 3. Breeze/Safiulin 27; 4. Radio Flyer/Hannick 38; 5. Circus/Bird 46; 6. Willy T/J World Blue 50; 7. Volcano/Rychel 51; 8. Bear Instinct/J World Red2 58; 9. Putz/Sumpton 61 Melges 24 (7 races) 1. Polywog/Fisher 12; 2. Liberty 2/Kessler 38.5; 3. Lamorak/Krantz 40; 4. My Dixie Wrecked/Harrison 42; 5. Whamo/Happ 43; 6. Frequent Flyer/Sherlock 47; 7. Hurricane/Rogner 48; 8. Hot Toddy/Todd 53; 9. Slippery/Pearson 57; 10. Dale/Weed 84; 11. Iocaine/Hobbs 87; 12. Zoom/Ward 102; 13. Pigs In Heaven/Gregory 116; 14. Madison/Schoendorf 116; 15. Sick Puppy/Jones 117; 16. Express Lane/Davenport 121; 17. Magic Carpet/MacPherson 126; 18. Dynamo Humm/Drinkwine-Jennings 130; 19. Gone Mad/Hyatt 131; 20. Mellow Yellow/Purton 131; 21. Trick Monkey/Mayo 134; 22. Silver Lining/Maggio 136; 23. Pucker Factor/Longen 158; 24. Bad Influence/Hamm 161; 25. Blade Runner 3/Smith 169; 26. Satori/Edgar 173; 27. Gang of Four/McCarthy 177; 28. Vapour Trail/Steyn 182; 29. Forerunner/Mathis 186; 30. Minnetonka II/Umberger 189; 31. Hot Tuna/Murphy 194 Olson 30 (8 races) 1. Lulu/Shingler 18; ;2. Twisted Fate/Bozeman 21; 3. Wild Rover/McGagh 21; 4. Badog/Cleall 265; 5. Hot Tuna/Scragg 44; 6. Mystere/Scott 45; 7. Wrinkles/Hay 64 S2 7.9 (8 races) 1. Half Baked/S Boston 14; 2. Frequent Flyer/W Boston 17; 3. Crime Scene/Jenkins 23; 4. Grrrr/Line 37; 5. Bama Slammer/Knowles 41; 6. Frolic/Vielhauer 45; 7. Greggarious/Gregg 50; 8. Maverick/Antley 64 Sonar (8 races) 1. Galloway 14; 2. Goldman 34; 3. Womack 53; 4. Sherman 55; 5. Oakie 55; 6. Kelly 64; 7. Ross-Duggan 64; 8. Callahan 66; 9. DeWolfe 68; 10. MacDonald 72; 11. Doerr 82; 12. Park 88; 13. Weinberg 115; 14. Ouellette 117; 15. Mitchell 131; 16. Lischer 135; 17. Twomey 137; 18. Wachowiak 140; 19. Trude 155; 20. Frankel 160; 21. McAllister 168; 22. Graver 175 SR Max (8 races) 1. Col. Fletcher Prouty/Clifton 15; 2. Viento/Embree 24; 3. Changes n L'attitude/Kadau 25; 4. Blind Chance/Wiercinski 29; 5. Mad Max/Geddy 47; 6. Cake Walk/Wilus 55; 7. Slippery When Wet II/Midgett 56; 8. Necessary Evil/Olson 58; 9. Animal/Coan 66; 10. Chain Saw/Lipkus 69 Tartan 10 (8 races) 1. Liquor Box/Buckles 14; 2. Full Bore/Fritz 14; 3. Temerity/Baker 28; 4. Glider/LaMotte 29; 5. Cygnet/Chambers 41 Ultimate 20 (8 races) 1. KK Spirit/Knight 17; 2. Bob Sled/Bilthouse 18; 3. Pandemonium/Crall 29; 4. Whirligig/Cushing 34; 5. Perseverance/Rouse 41; 6. Uh-huh/Corey 45; 7. Wendela/Crook 47; 8. Ultimate Velocity/Gillette 60 |