Spectacular St Petersburg NOOD Regatta!

J/Tribe Winners include J/29 & J/42!
(St Petersburg, FL)- Ninety-five keelboats sailed in what could only be described as “champagne sailing conditions” for the 2016 edition of the HELLY HANSEN St Petersburg NOOD Regatta hosted by the St Petersburg YC.  Thirty-eight of those teams (40% of the fleet) were J/Boats covering the range from one-design classes of J/70s and J/24s and PHRF racing classes that includes J/29s, J/105s, J/100, J/88, J/40 and J/42!

The forecast was promising virtually “chamber of commerce” weather all of President’s Day Weekend.  Friday started under postponement, but saw light to moderate winds develop out of the SSW, enough to get in three races for most fleets.  Then, Saturday saw a northerly die and become a WNW breeze in the moderate 6-12 kts range for at least three more races across all courses.  Then, Sunday dawned with a beautiful 10-15 kts northerly wind that ultimately died by 1:30pm when the RC PRO’s all called it quits for the day, but most courses had completed two races.

The twenty-two boat J/70 class had close racing overall and it was a good warm-up for the upcoming J/70 Midwinters in a fortnight at the same location. Hoping to carry that momentum forward is the winner, Will Welles’ team on SEA BAGS SAILING TEAM from Newport, RI.  Welles’ crew won handily counting 24 pts total. However, behind him it was “clear as mud” regarding who would fill out the top five.  In the end, it was the Fort Worth Boat Club team of STAMPEDE, skippered by Bruno Pasquinelli that took the silver with 34 pts.  Third was Buzzard’s Bay sailor Brian Keane on SAVASANA with 42 pts.  Fourth was Geoff Becker’s USA 25 and fifth was Kerry Klingler’s MENACE.

The J/24 class had a battle royale for the top three with the final placings determined by the last three races on Sunday.  Separated by only six points, the Japanese team on SIESTA, skippered by Nobuyuki Imai finished with 19 pts.  Just three points back in second place was Travis Odenbach’s HONEY BADGER from upstate New York.  Rounding out the top three was Carter White’s SEA BAGS SAILING TEAM with 25 pts.  Taking fourth was local hotshot David Mendelblatt’s FAT LADY from St Pete YC and fifth was Paul Anstey’s J-PEAS.

The world of PHRF handicap racing was fraught with peril.  The St Pete YC RC decided to start both PHRF 1 big boat class on the same starting line as the PHRF 2 little boat class!  To say the starts were a bit “hair-raising” would be an understatement— rubbing gunwales, bent stanchions and frayed nerves were the order of the day!  In the PHRF 1 Class, Mike Bruno’s J/88 WINGS from American YC avoided most of the chaos to secure a tie for 3rd place, but losing the tie-break after the last race.  Seventh went to the J/105 J-HAWK sailed by David Arata and 8th was George Cussins’ J/105 FIRE & ICE.

The fourteen boat PHRF 2 Class saw the J/29 SEMPER FI repeat their overwhelming domination of the division as they did last year. Raymond Mannix’s SEMPER FI team from St Pete Sailing Association simply dominated, taking five 1sts on their way to an easy win.

J/42 SHAZAM & J/40 INTREPID Win North Sails Rally!
A little bit of practice never hurts, especially in a one-day race. The J/42 SHAZAM, Saturday’s winner of the North Sails Rally Spinnaker division, took advantage of the first day of the St. Petersburg NOOD by sailing in the PHRF 1 division on Friday to prepare. “Practicing on the buoys yesterday made our sets and jibes much smoother today,” says Staci Reed, crew aboard the J/42. “The muscle memory was there. We did six sets and douses yesterday, and two or three jibes per leg, so it helped the back keep everything working today.”

SHAZAM, skippered by Roger Gatewood, sailed in the PHRF 1 division on Friday as a practice day, before digging in to the Rally today and taking both line honors and the overall corrected win. “Two things went well for us,” says bowman Brian Wasmunt. “The J/40 INTREPID (skippered by Jeff Russo) was with us until the last leg. They were ahead of us, but every rounding we gained about three boat lengths on them. We’d jockey with them each leg, then they’d take off, but we caught up to them in the roundings.”  The North Sails Rally ran a ten-mile distance course around six marks in Tampa Bay.

“The last leg was the most defining for us,” says Wasmunt. “It got light, but we laid a line from really far out and we were able to make it. A lot of the other boats weren’t’ able to lay the line, and it started getting shifty when we finished. Wing it got stuck in a huge hole at the last leg. We put distance on everyone in the last leg. It was a little bit of luck.”  Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images.  For more HELLY HANSEN St Pete NOOD regatta sailing information


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