Detroit Special Delivery
Jake Thomas’ JPK 10.80 Smoke Show at the start of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Detroit. Smoke Show went on to win the ORC A race.
Walter Cooper
The locals of the Detroit yacht racing scene know that Lake St. Clair can be feast or famine and on the second day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series hosted by Bayview YC, the sailors feasted on a blustery 20-knot northerly for an action packed day of racing for all one-design fleets and the ORC and PHRF distance racers, which quickly disappeared over the horizon after their early morning start.
The big boats of ORC Class A were the first to set off, and mixed in among them was Jake Thomas’ JPK 10.80 Smoke Show, a shorthanded offshore weapon that’s built for reaching. And off-wind sailing is what the fleet got after a short beat to the first mark of the course. And reach is what Smoke Show did across the finish line off Bayview YC on the Detroit River. First to finish and now first in their eight-boat ORC A fleet.
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }“Beat, reach, reach, reach, that’s what this boat is made for,” says Smoke Show’s tactician and sailmaker Andy Camarda. While some teams were conservative with offwind sail selections and deployments in the morning’s gusty winds, Smoke Show used practically everything in its quiver. “Code Zero and spinnakers,” Camarda says, “we used them all and it was a quick race for us.”
Funtech, J/120 class leader, keeping tabs on their rivals on Hot Ticket on the second day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Detroit.<
Walter Cooper
Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.98, DeTour—another modern design and proven winner in the ORC world—finished the day atop the ORC B fleet standings and Jeff Sampson’s Nelson/Marek 30 Peacemaker corrected out to the top of ORC C. For PHRF A, Jim Weyand’s turbo 1D35 Chico 2 got the win and Harald Kolter’s Hobie 33 Das Boot leads PHRB B. Alan Tecmire’s Tec Offensive, an Abbott 33 custom, made quick work of the course to correct to the top of PHRF C.
While the distance racers sprinted around their Lake St. Clair course, the full complement of the regatta’s one-design classes stepped up their series. Yesterday’s classes, the Tartan 10s and S2 7.9s were joined on their course by the Melges 24s and Cal 25s, which are racing Saturday and Sunday only.
In the highly competitive J/120 fleet, the battle for Bayview’s “J Dock” supremacy continued between arch-rivals Funtech and Hot Ticket. After three races today, which brings the series to seven races thus far, Funtech padded its lead by another point, but still, the delta is only 2 points. For Funtech skipper Charlie Hess, the day’s focus was all about staying close to Hot Ticket, no matter what.
Brad Kimmel and Steve Young’s Diablo on the step and relishing the windy conditions on the second day of the Detroit regatta.
Walter Cooper
“That was more important than playing wind shifts,” Hess says. “We were in cover mode all day. We just wanted to stay in front of them.”
The first race of the day set the stage for this two-boat battle, with Hot Ticket finishing ahead of them. “They just had a great downwind,” Hess says, “and after that race the whole thing was tied and it was back to square one.”
In the next race, he adds, the day’s strategy remained the same. “We were super focused on being fast and staying ahead of them, and in that race were able to get ahead and stay ahead.”
In the next and final race, Funtech led the fleet at the first weather mark, “but there were about 8 boats that rounded the mark together.”
Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan keeps it overall lead over their rivals on Taz in the Tartan 10 fleet.
Walter Cooper
Funtech was pinned outside the group and unable to jibe when they wanted to. “We got strung out way to the outside and over-stood the layline by a lot,” Hess says. “That really put us behind, but we were able to get back into the race with a good shift and finished right behind them.”
Remarking on the quality of racing, Hess says his team enjoyed the conditions immensely. “It’s rare to have an 18-knot northerly day on Lake St. Clair. It was beautiful. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see a few of the other boats do really well.
With Sunday’s forecast for winds to moderate, however, Hess and his teammates are under no illusion that it will be easier. “It will be game on, for sure,” he says, “and we’ll be ready for it.”
A similar scenario awaits the J/111 fleet, which has Brad Kimmel and Steve Young’s Diablo now with a 2-point lead over Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal. These two fiercely competitive but friendly class rivals were locked into their own day-long battle. Black Seal won the day’s first race after an intense jibing duel on the final leg, but Diablo nailed the next two.
“The goal for the day was no unforced errors,” Kimmel says. “Basically making sure the crew was ready for everything, talking though maneuvers and sticking to the game plan of covering Black Seal and making sure we kept the other boats behind us.
Paul and Ross Nuechterlein’s Cal 25 Never Alone, three-race winners on the first day of racing for the Cals.
Walter Cooper
“The big thing was minimizing errors in the big breeze and waves and keeping the boat moving fast by changing gears because there were big lulls mixed. We got better as the day went on. “The crew work was great and the front of the boat did really well.”
One import adjustment after the first race, Kimmel says, was changing their jibe technique. Rather than pulling the new sheet aft and down hard while exiting the jibe, which is the technique in lighter winds, they pulled it aft only. “Once we did that our jibes were much better,” Kimmel says.
Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride was in winning form in the windy conditions, taking all three races in the J/35s.
Walter Cooper
For the Santana 35s contesting their North American Championship, Chris Benedict’s Shape won two races to firm up their lead over Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. And for the J/35s vying for their Great Lakes Championship, Bill Wildner’s experienced team on Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride were masters of the big breeze, winning all three races by significant margins.
On Division C, Paul and Ross Nuechterlein’s Cal 25 Never Alone was untouchable, winning all three races, but only after a hard-fought battle with the all-women team on Erin Colpaert’s Gill Galls. Colpaert’s team were plenty fast upwind, but having broken their spinnaker pole in the first race, they were unable to match the downwind spinnaker speed and handling of Never Alone.
Peter McClennan’s Melges 24 Gamecock making quick work of the downwind legs.
Walter Cooper
In the S2 7.9s, Dan Cheresh’s Extreme 2 went undefeated and doubled its lead to 7 points over John Spierling’s Rebel, which posted a pair of seconds and a third. Two teams opted to sit out the day’s windy conditions, which opened the starting line with plenty of room for Cheresh to get away clean in every start. With tactician and sailmaker Tac Boston on top of their boatspeed, Cheresh says, they were fast upwind and downwind and plenty comfortable in the conditions.
While the circle’s displacement boats were rocking and rolling downwind under symmetric spinnakers, the Melges 24s were in sportboat heaven. With upwind legs lasting about 10 minutes and downwind legs about 5 minutes, the race committee was able to give them four races. Peter McClennan’s Gamecock won two of them, and Dan Berezin’s Surprise bagged one to keep the series to 2 points.
The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta’s Youth Invitational Keelboat fleet starts its final of 12 races on the first day of the series.
Walter Cooper
While Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan looked to have command of the Tartan 10s after the first light-air day, the big breeze was in the wheelhouse of Hanson Bratton’s team on Taz, which won two of three races to bring themselves to within a point of the lead going into the final day.
On the Detroit River, off the deck of Bayview YC, the regatta’s first-ever Youth Invitational Keelboat Championship fleet put on a thrilling exposition of stadium-style racing in the club’s Ultimate 20s. After 12 races, the team representing Detroit YC, led by skipper Graham Rebain, sits atop the standings, tied with the from Macatawa Bay YC, led by Lucas Nykamp.
The post Detroit Special Delivery appeared first on Sailing World.