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Sailing Anarchy J/24 Nationals
A number of sails were measured yesterday (Tuesday) but someone decided to remove the measurement tape marks from the ballroom floor overnight which made for a bit of frantic frustration in the morning. All was reset and the queue for sail measurement never lasted very long. Crew weigh-in is always interesting. The crew weight limit for a J/24 is 882lbs. Brian Ingram and crew weighed in at 881.9. Do you THINK that there’s a reason that these guys are as good as they are? My wife was pretty much in charge of all crew weigh-ins and got treated to a good number of scantily clad gentlemen (term used in a very broad sense) in boxers standing on her official scales. She said she’d be home late and not to wait up… The practice race, which was held in the afternoon, was a hoot. As I mentioned, the Seattle guys brought the weather with them. Temperatures were in the upper 60’s and the wind was out of 350 at 12-18 knots (gusts in the mid 20’s) with a 2-3 foot short chop. Most boats were using second-string sails and many were flying blades by the end of the day. Being on the markset/finish boat it was interesting to see two J/24s lay over on their ears with keels out of the water and spreaders in the water for a few seconds (Genoa boats, of course). A good number of boats were out early speed testing both before and after the practice race. It will be interesting to see how these sailors adapt to the more normal conditions on Galveston Bay with temps in the 80’s and wind out of 135 at 10-15 knots for the actual Regatta. The Red Bluff Lift will catch many competitors off guard if they don’t know about it! Gotta tell you – the Sailing Anarchy swag is wayyyyy cool. Thanks Ed for the shirts and stuff. I hope to have pics for the t-shirts tomorrow. “WHAT’S IT RATE” is the word here this weekend. LOL – it’s a one-design regatta for crying out loud… Schedule is for three races each day -- Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There’s a huge buzz around here. Everyone is excited and anticipating an exciting and competitive event. Me – I’m just hoping that I can call bow numbers quickly enough at the finish to get them all in correct order. This is a hugely competitive fleet from all over the U.S.A, Canada and Mexico. Socially, there is a pool party tomorrow, a fajita BBQ on Friday, and the Sailing Anarchy Ball on Saturday with shot blocks and a mechanical bull (where’s Debra Winger when you need her…). First gun tomorrow is at 10:30 a.m. A flight of 4 F-16s from the 147th Fighter Wing will be making a flyover at 10:29 a.m. THAT will be impressive. Look for more tomorrow. BJSailor
Blowin' the Dogs off the Leashes" J/24 Nationals at Houston Yacht Club
Sitting on the windward boat was a treat today. In the first race it was great to see the machismo of the J/24 sailors as they all thought the 150% Genoa was the right sail for the beat. LOL – well, on the second beat, almost everyone had changed down to the 100% class jib. Wipeouts, round-ups, accidental jibes – we got to see them all today! The PRO tried to see if the 50+ boat fleet would behave by flying the"P" flag during the sequence, but the sailors had other ideas. It took the "I" flag to even start to get them behaved and even then there were as many as 15 boats OCS on the starts. Competitive? I guess so! All races in this regatta are 5 legs with finishes to windward. Mike Ingham and his crew showed their stuff in Race 4 (first race of the day) with a bullet, followed by Chris Snow in second and David Klatt in third. Seven boats were scored OCS and didn't return to restart. Race 5 saw the highest breezes of the day. Chris Snow took first with Zaleski/Zaleski in second and David Klatt in third (again). One mid-deck crew took a boom in the face (think Whack-A-Mole) and had to be evacuated off the course to the emergency room. He was back for the party though, with a broken nose and a body full of "happy drugs" from the hospital ER. He's going to look like a raccoon tomorrow once the bruising takes full bloom. Also had a snapped rudder – broke just below the pintles/gudgeons. One of the RC boats picked up the debris. By the time Race 6 rolled around, everyone had about as much sailing as they wanted. There were a bunch of tired folks on the course and a few had headed back to the harbor / bar. The wind actually moderated to 15-18 knots true and some of the boats probably could have flown the Genoa to power through the short steep chop better. Chris Snow came through with another bullet in this race, Daniel Borrer took second, and David Klatt took another third place.
The downside today was that there were 21 protests filed. Most of them were Requests for Redress on the Individual Recalls under the "I" flag starts today. I overheard a conversation between a skipper and an RC line sighter:
Other than the one crew injury, the only other real carnage today involved a t-boning (port-starboard from what I understand) that resulted in a pretty big hole in one boat. Once we were all off the water, everyone looked liked drowned rats – sailors and RC too. What a great day on the Bay! Sailing was great, competition was great. Couldn't ask for a better day. Hell, I gave up work for this!!! Life really sucksJ Final results tomorrow. BJSailor
"And the Oxygen Masks Dropped out of the Booms…" J/24 Nationals – Day 2 Recap Photos courtesy
of Yacht Shots
Anticipating
that the wind would go right, the RC set the course for
I'd like to think that Race 3 was rather uneventful for the racers with each leg very well behaved windward and leeward. The RC, on the other hand, moved the windward mark for each new leg of the course in order to keep things square. Congrats to Chris Snow for the bullet, Peter Wickwire in Sunnyvale in second, and Stuart Challoner in third. There are still a couple of protests that have to be resolved, one of which has to do with a boat weight issue. So preliminary final results from Day 1 look like this: 1st Chris
Snow #29 – 14 points
Marc H and the rest of the event staff also deserve some positive pats on the back too. This crew has done a very good job in preparing for the event and ensuring that the kick-off portion has come off without a hitch. Tomorrow (Friday) looks like a nice day for the sailors. Forecast of for 15-20. I'd actually be surprised to see that much breeze, but at least it'll be blowing. I'll let you know tomorrow evening… BTW – last I saw her, my wife was finishing up the weigh-ins this morning. There was a crew from Massachusetts with some strange accents who were weighing-in with nothing but their boxers when it was 62F outside. I'd assume that there was some "shrinkage" involved with respect to crew weight. She left me a voice mail message that said that she'd be late again tonight and to just go to bed and not wait up. What's up with that????? BJSailor
J/24 Nationals Final Day!!!
In Texas we have the Weather Rock. If the rock is warm and dry then the weather is fair and sunny, if the rock is wet and cold then it's raining. If it's gone then it's blowing like stink. Today it was wet and cold when we arrived at HYC. By 0900 the RC had hoisted the AP while a line of storms and tornadoes passed through the area. Around Noon, the AP came down with a notice for an anticipated 1330 warning gun. The rest of the day turned out to be beautiful, sunny and warm, with the breeze out of an uncharacteristic 250deg to 320 deg from 5-13knots (yea, the RC felt a lot of love today from the weather today!).
Racing today was the absolute best you could expect for the last day of this event. Conditions on the water (after the rain passed) were perfect. The PRO (Jim Tichenor) got in two races and still got everyone back in the harbor at HYC in time to get all the boats out and on trailers before dinner was in full swing. Both races were decided on which crew could read the occilations and pressure on the course the best. It wasn't exactly shifting all over the place, but it was extremely important to spot the occilations as well as the areas of increased pressure on different sides of the course. John Kolius and Roger Hardin took bullets for the two races today. My thought is that both of these guys have more patience than Job when it comes to figuring out the shifts and pressure on courses like today.
Mike Snow and crew were the big story this week. They absolutely dominated the regatta with 7-3-1-2-1-1-4-6 for a 25 point (no throw out) total. Dominated is an understatement. These guys OWNED the event! Congrats Mike and crew for a well sailed and consistent regatta. Second place went to last years winner Mike Ingham who took second in a tie-breaker with the team of Zaleski/Zalesk. These three teams kicked butt and all should be congratulated. Here's a rundown of the top 10:
I run down the top 10 for a reason (other than the Letterman thing). Each of these teams received a wall hanging trophy of a set of Texas Longhorns. Yes, those big wide cow horns that you see on the hood Cadilacs of guys like Ken Lay and Tom Delay. Each of these were at least 30" across, mounted on a plaque. These weren't your ordinary pickle dishes. Well sailed all:-) The team from Beverly Massachusetts received the Sportsmanship award for their unselfish donation of time and effort to take care of lots of the regatta details – from selling wares, to taking meal tickets, to helping with measurements and weigh-ins, to registering participants. This crew took a pass on preparing their boat and practicing to help this event execute as well as it could. My apologies for not having names of the crew or boat, but THANK YOU nonetheless!
Our own Scott (the Editor) Tempesta was in attendance to help hand out the awards and to schmooze with everyone there. I was surprised to see that he is not 8' tall and ready to smash us Dumfuckinstanies into oblivion. Scott, thanks for the wares, the sponsorship, the hype, the presence, and the momentum that helped make this event a success. We may disagree on some things, but sailing isn't one of them. Joe King Carosco provided the entertainment at the Sailing Anarchists Ball. The competitors were treated to Texas BBQ. There were shot blocks and tequila shooters going right and left. This was one of the better tents I've been to in a long time. Kudos to Marc H. and his crew for a job well done in putting this event together.
To close, I'd like to make a plug for the competitors in this regatta. Everyone rags on J/24s for every conceivable reason. They're slow, they're uncomfortable, they're dogs to sail, they habitually disregard the rules, "Hell, if we ain't rubbin', we ain't racin" mentality. I spent the entire week at the windward mark and I must comment that this group of 60 boats were very good and honest competitors. There was little controversy at either the windward mark or leeward gate, everyone found space to fit in the parade on the starboard laylines (though, there was some heated discussion occasionally), I heard the same from the leeward mark boat also. Protests and Requests for Redress were heard in a very civilized manner and quicker than anyone would have expected. All the competitors seemed to be helping each other out a the lifts, in the water, in the parking lot, wherever! I heard one of one competitor actually apologize because his spare rudder wouldn't fit on a boat that broke theirs the day before and that it wouldn't work as a loaner. It was a pleasure to be a small part of this event with these great folks. OK, I'm going to strap on the banana hammock and get over to the shot blocks. Somebody mentioned that there was a need for some "Shot Boys" to balance out the Shot Girls over there. I'm done! BJSailor 04/29/06 |
Whoooweee!
I saw a duck today standing with it's head away from the wind and it laid
the same egg three times!!! Boy, it was blowing today! Temps in the upper
70's F with winds 18-21 all day with gusts well over 25 knots and the
wind held pretty steady at around 120. One of the "features"
of Galveston Bay is that the chop tends to be short and steep. Today saw
3 foot chop that would stop many bigger boats should they try and tack
in anything but flatter water. A lesson here
The
RC has been using a mid-line boat in addition to the Signal Boat and a
pin boat on the start line. This has enabled them to call all the over-earlies
very easily and has given the fleet a much easier line to set up on, considering
that the start line is over 3/10mi long. This fleet is very competitive
and everyone is competing for a front line start. Second tier starts are
death in this regatta. Jim Tichenor and his RC down at the start end of
the line had done a tremendous in setting square and fair lines. Being
relegated to the markset/finish boat for me has been easy duty compared
to the leeward end of the line.
Competitor:
"I don't think I'm being fairly treated. My tactic is to carry a
bunch of boats waaaayyy up over the line and then drop back down below
the line at the last minute and have a clean start." RC."LOLOLOL Well, let me tell you. When I can sight between your
backstays and line up your rudder with the flag at the other end, then
I believe that you were over early."
