At the front of the fleet, Bebop and Better Mousetrap outclassed all the
other boats. All other boats had atleast one pretty bad race, although
Big Kahuna's bad races were less bad, so she nailed down third.
Winning Skipper Bob Rutsch provided this report:
The 2005 Annapolis NOOD lived up to its reputation as a one-design
drawing card, attracting 274 boats in 17 classes, including 39 for the
Melges 24's for their U.S. Nationals. There were fourteen J/30s thanks
to the efforts of Fleet Captain Michael McGill. They included five boats
that did not race last year: Better Mousetrap, Cannonball, Mary Lou,
Shaken Not Stirred, and newcomer Avenger. Conditions were very
unsettled, with 6-10 from the east Friday, 18-20 from the south with
rain to start Saturday, that later moderated to 10-12. The rain cleared
before the start Sunday, bringing puffy 15-20 northwesterly.
On Bebop, we had a tight battle with Better Mousetrap that left us tied
on points at the end of both the first and second day. That brought
about match racing tactics for Sunday where the difference between the
two boats was about as fine as frog hair.
Courses were typically short--six 3/4 mile legs windward-leewards--until
Sunday when we sailed two races of four-legs with each leg one mile. The
short courses meant we had congested weather marks and traffic from the
other four fleets starting as we rounded the leeward mark. It's kind of
hard to remember it all after, but I will try.
Friday's racing was in ESE winds of 8-10, a typically shifty direction
as the breeze comes across the Eastern Shore. The first race we were a
bit of late near the pin, but played the shifts for the lead in front of
a tight pack. Tight enough that Better Mousetrap and Cannonball had a
dead heat for second and the next several boats finished overlapped or
nearly so.
Race 2, the pin was heavily favored and we got pinched off to leeward,
but Bear Away on our weather hip was called over and peeled off to
restart. A quick peak over my shoulder and I saw we could port tack the
fleet, which we did. That's always a nice bonus. In the third race we
were mid fleet on the first beat but made gains on each leg to move up
to fourth. We got lucky and picked off Cannonball for third when they
leebowed to lay the final weather mark. It turned out the offset was
skewed to weather so we were able to roll them. Mousetrap won with
Kahuna second.
Expecting light air we had set the rig in the upper 30's on the Loos
gauge and eased off the headstay a bit short of max. The breeze was
better than expected so that was probably a bit too loose. We were fast,
but couldn't point well enough to hold our lane off the starting line.
Friday night we wound everything up in anticipation of more breeze
Saturday and to avoid having to tune in the rain the next morning. That
seemed about right for the rest of the weekend, except maybe the fourth
race when the breeze was over 20 and the eighth race when we were
overpowered with the big genny.
Saturday dawned with rain and chop, as the southerly blew into an ebb.
We had a poor start, tacked and took sterns to clear. At 3/4 of a mile
the weather mark was a near fiasco. As we approached on the starboard
layline with Shaken on our hip a pack of boats converged on port.
Mousetrap and no respect crossed and rounded cleanly. Cannonball
leebowed us, but couldn't lay the mark. We luffed up to avoid T-boning
Kahuna and almost didn't make the mark ourselves as Shaken rolled us.
But we were able to gybe quickly and get back in the race, and ended up
following Mousetrap home. The fifth race, which was later abandoned, was
six-leg fetch with a quick gybe set a necessity. No respect got the gun
with Mousetrap second. Mary Lou dispensed with the kite and jib reaching
held off Bebop for third. For the sixth race, it lightened up bit and
we got to the favorable lift on the right to lead, but as usual, there
was Mousetrap right with us.
Sunday we tested both the genny and the #3 before the breeze kicked up
and making the decision for the #3 easy. We liked the pin and won it,
but Mousetrap also had a good start, two boats up on our hip. We
squeezed a bit then tacked about halfway up, but had to duck Mousetrap.
They hipped up on us while we footed, looking for a header to come back
at them. When we did, they we forced them over. From that point we
covered and led them to the finish.
In the eighth and final race the committee end was favored. We chose to
start on starboard while Mousetrap did a port approach and tacked under
us. They got squashed between Insatiable to leeward and us to weather
and had to tack out to clear. We loose covered and initially figured we
had a couple of boats between us. But, Mousetrap was right back in the
race at the leeward mark. The wind had lightened, so we had both changed
up to the genny. They rounded and immediately sheared off us. Our
comfortable lead was gone. We tacked, barely crossed and tried to slap a
tight cover on them, but Mousetrap broke free to leeward. Somehow we
were able to hold our position on their hip for the long port tack drag
race to the layline. That was an intense five minutes of side-by-side
competition. But we had them pinned and sailed them past the layline
before tacking and leading them around and home.
We had a great regatta on Bebop with our core crew of brother-in-law
Mike Costello at the bow, Carole Hamner trimming jib, and Bill Harris on
chute. Dreamboat Annie's Rob Lundahl did all three days in the pit, and
his co-owner Chip Devine filled in Saturday for Steve Swenson, who
trimmed Friday and Sunday. Most of the credit has to go to Trevor Pardee
who came up from Virginia Beach to trim and call tactics. He and I went
to college together and have sailed on and off for nearly 25 years.
Trevor elevates our game tremendously. We did miss having my Dad and
sister Nancy out, but they did cheer us on.
I was very impressed at how well Bob Putnam and Mary Grealy had Better
Mousetrap going after an eighteen-month layoff. It was great to see
several of their veteran crew, particularly fellow Jet-14 sailors Cathy
Cotell and Eric Johnson. Mousetrap's brain trust was bolstered by
Michael Mark, a fine sailor and past winner of US Sailing's Mallory Cup
with Benz Faget, up from the Buccaneer Yacht Club in Mobile Alabama. I
am pretty certain his buddies Benz and Donnie Brennan from Zephyr gave
him a few tips on how to make a J/30 go.
Mousetrap greeted us back at the dock with a 'we are not worthy' bow.
Bob and Mary invited us up for a drink and tour of their newly renovated
unit overlooking Spa Creek. Bob lamented the fact that he had a string
of nothing but one's and two's, "I don't even get to say I'm the fastest
boat on the dock."
1. Bebop, Bob Rutsch, 1-1-3-2-1-1-1=10
2. Better Mousetrap, Bob Putnam, 2T-2-1-1-2-2-2=12
3. Big Kahuna, Larry Christy, 5-6-2-6-3-6-4=32
4. Shaken Not Stirred, Gordon & Becky Latrobe, 9-4-5-3-6-3-5=35
5. Tiger, Tom Donlan, 4-3-10-5-4-10-3=39
6. No Respect, Harrison Syndicate, 6-12-6-4-5-5-6=44
7. Cannonball, Bill Wallop, 2T-7-4-8-10-7-15(DNS)=53
8. Bear Away, Bonnie Sue Schloss, 12-5-7-7-9-11-7=58
9. Mary Lou, Michael & Kathleen McGill, 8-14-8-9-8-4-9=60
10. Insatiable, Ron Anderson, 7-10-11-12-11-8-8=67
11. Avita, George Watson, 11-9-15(DNC)-10-7-9-10=71
12. Encounter, Drew Dowling, 10-8-9-13-13-15-12=80
13. Black Magic, Michael Hotaling, 13-11-12-11-12-12-11=82
14. Avenger, Art Collins, 14-13-13-14-14-13-13=94
-----------------------------
Many sailors would be frustrated by racing so well and coming up just
short of victory, but Better Mousetrap's skipper Bob Putnam sent us this
gracious note:
After a yearlong lay-off from J30 racing, we were hoping Mousetrap would
have a light wind, tame re-entry in the NOOD. We got that for one day,
anyway. Friday's 8 to 10 knots were just right for us, but the solid
breezes for the rest of the weekend were quite a challenge.
Fortunately, most of the old team could be aboard, and we were greatly
aided by a buddy from Mobile Bay, Michael Mark -- an attorney who sails
like a pro (a much better deal than the opposite situation).
We were pretty rusty in the early going, but we were soon adjusting
things, sliding on the worn-out nonskid and generally blundering around
the boat just like old times. I tuned the shrouds to the Loos Gauge
numbers on the old, bloodstained index card in the toolbox (hoping those
were rig tensions, not some old phone number), and turned the old girl
loose.
Our Mobile Bay guru may not have been an expert on local wind patterns
and Chesapeake tides, but he sure was good at keeping us in phase and
generally out of trouble. At the end of the second day, we seemed to be
getting better in every race, and we were tied with BeBop.
Finding ourselves lucky enough to be pretty far ahead of Larry and the
very good Kahuna team in 3rd, we still decided against trying any match
racing foolishness with BeBop. We wanted the best boat to win out on
the water, instead of in a protest room. And that's sure how it turned
out, with the BeBoppers leaving no doubt - drubbing us twice in
beautiful sailing conditions on Sunday.
We're certainly not counting on such great success in future races, and
half suspect some people were going easy on us to make sure we keep
coming back. But it sure was a great way to rejoin the J-30 fleet.
----------------------------
A quick note on Race 5
The course board had the race five weather mark bearing at 190 degrees.
Some time after the start, a lime mark was dropped in that direction.
However the both lime mark and the orange offset remained from the
previous race at about 145 degrees--a virtual fetch. The SI's and
Addendum 1 both specified a lime mark and orange offset for each course.
Boats from the left side of the course approached the old marks as the
RC mark boat was pulling the offset to move it. In the confusion the
mark boat dropped the offset close the old position and boats began to
round the wrong marks. Why the race wasn't abandoned at this point is a
mystery.
After the race Bear Away's Bonnie Schloss indicated on the VHF radio
that she intended to file for redress. She had sailed toward the
correct lime mark until the RC boat arrived and pulled it. Bebop had
also tacked toward the correct mark, so requested redress as well. RC
Chair Jack Lynch acknowledged the error and the Jury chose to abandon.
-------------------------
