J/Sailors Love St Petersburg NOOD Regatta!

(St Petersburg, FL)- The 2019 edition of the Helly Hansen St Petersburg NOOD Regatta took place from February 15th to 17th, hosted by St Petersburg Yacht Club. This year’s event may go down in history as one of the best three days of sailing ever on Tampa Bay!  Epic conditions every day, with sunny warm weather (70s F), and fresh southeast to southwest breezes ranging from 6 to 17 kts- in other words, true “Chamber of Commerce” conditions with shorts, t-shirts, and shades being the wardrobe of the weekend.

Thirty-seven of the 106 keelboats participating were J/Boats crews (34%). Those 250+ J sailor certainly had a rocking good time, making the most of the spring-like weather to enjoy the famous “Tiki Bar” on the second floor of St Petersburg YC’s terrace.  Participating teams included one-design fleets for J/24s, J/70s, J/88s, and J/111s and a few J/crews sailing PHRF handicap, too! Again, it was another “de facto” J/Fest for J enthusiasts across America.

Fabulous Friday
The first day of the regatta dawned with a sunny day and a harbor postponement. That was a good thing.  Since virtually all weather forecasts and GRIB files showed the seabreeze starting to roll in before noontime and increasing into the 8-12 kts range by late afternoon.  It turned out to be a good call, as the fleet left the docks at 11:30am to head out to the race course for three good races in SE to SW winds of 6 to 12 kts.  It was great sailing for all the one-design fleets on all four circles and the competition was tough!

The competition was not lost on Maddy Ploch sailing on the J/70 circle. The high school student jumped into the boat for the first time in over a year and a half. Despite shaking off rust today she and her crew- including her father (Mark Ploch) as tactician- finished the day in third overall.

"You look over your shoulder for one second and you already lose two boat lengths looking at the guy next to you," Ploch says. "It’s really good competition here and I am actually really excited to come back again tomorrow and use some of the information I got today and apply it for every race that comes after."

Ploch's forte is offshore long-distance racing - she has a few thousand miles under her belt from racing to Bermuda twice and doing boat deliveries - but she is no stranger to NOOD regattas having competed in her first one when she was 12 years old.

"It's very different racing, you have to be in a different mindset," she says. "The start is one third of the race on a short course. It's always about boat speed, tactics and strategy - when to cut your losses and when to duck and bite the bullet. I was glad to have some light wind today to get my bearings straight and remember the feel of the boat. But, it would great to have more breeze in the coming days to keep things exciting and sail the regatta in all conditions."

Leading the J/70s after the first day was Peter Bowe’s TEA DANCE SNAKE, followed by Travis Odenbach’s HONEYBADGER in second.

Fast out of the blocks in the J/24 class was Carter White’s YouREGATTA, scoring a 1-2-3 to lead with 6 pts.  Following them were Mike Quaid’s ICE CUBE in second and Robby Brown’s ANGEL OF HARLEM in third.

The J/88s had very closely fought racing.  After three races, Bill Purdy’s WHIRLWIND was leading with 9 pts, followed by Mike Bruno’s WINGS and Andy & Sarah Graff’s EXILE tied at 10 pts each.

Similarly, the J/111s were all essentially tied up.  The leaders were tied at 6 pts each, Rob Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF and Ian Hill’s SITELLA. Just one point back was Jeff Davis’ SHAMROCK.

Spectacular Saturday
The second day of racing started off with a good breeze out of the south that, ultimately, swung into the southwest and increased to 10-15 kts for most circles. All circles got in at least four races and the sailors were sent home at 2:30pm in the afternoon!

White’s YouREGATTA continued to lead the J/24s, but the rest of the podium saw changes. David Ogden’s BUCKAROO crew from Toronto, Canada leapt into the second spot with a 3-1-2-1 for 17 pts, while Quaid’s ICE CUBE dropped to third with a 4-3-3-2 for 21 pts.

Similar movement was seen in the J/88 class. Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION team managed a 2-1-1-3 to lead with 17 pts, followed by John & Jordan Leahey’s DUTCH team from Denver, Colorado that had 21 pts.  One point back was Bruno’s WINGS with 22 pts.

The J/70s saw their standings shuffle dramatically amongst the leaders. Odenbach’s HONEYBADGER crew knocked it out of the park on Saturday; they were now leading after blowing off their erstwhile competitors with straight bullets to lead with just 12 pts. Second was now occupied by Bowe’s TEA DANCE SNAKE with a 6-2-6-4 tally on the day for a 22 pts total. Third was still the young Ms. Ploch on USA 88 with 23 pts.

Beginning to pull ahead in the J/111 class was the Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF, posting a scorchingly hot tally of 1-3-1-1 for a total of 12 pts on the day! Ouch, that’s putting the big hurt on the fleet! Then, Hill’s SITELLA hung on to second with a 2-2-3-3 for 16 pts and Davis’ SHAMROCK remained in the third position with a 3-1-4-2 for 17 pts.

Meanwhile, in PHRF 2 Racing Spinnakers, sitting in second after five races was Ray Mannix’s J/29 SEMPER FI with George Cussins’ J/105 FIRE & ICE in third, just a scant point in arrears.

Supercalifragilistic Sunday
It was another beautiful sunny day for the final day of racing. Once the sea breeze patiently filled in by noontime, it built quickly into the 8-12 kts range from the S to SW. Racing got underway and most classes completed two races for a regatta total of eight to nine races by the 1400 hrs time limit.

At each Helly Hansen NOOD regatta, organizers select one team from among its class winners to challenge the 2018 Caribbean NOOD Championship winner. This year’s winner in St. Petersburg was the J/70 class winner, Travis Odenbach, skipper of HONEYBADGER. He and his crew earned a berth in the Helly Hansen NOOD Caribbean Championship regatta, hosted by Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands in October 2019.

This was a particularly sweet win for the Pittsford, New York, native and his team that won their class by 15 points. Previously, Odenbach was the regatta’s overall winner, but was unable to attend the Caribbean Championship due to a conflict with the J/24 North Americans.

"I have been doing the NOOD since then trying to redeem myself and my crew won’t sail with me if I skip it again," said Odenbach. "We tried pretty hard to win and this is a gift. We are really excited and we are not going to skip this year!!”

"With 75 degree temperatures and 10 to 12 knots of breeze, it's been one of the best years that I have been in the NOOD here," continued Odenbach. Odenbach, a successful J/24 racer, is relatively new to the J/70 and attributes his success to his crew who is enjoying the boat and also some lessons on the water over the weekend.

"One of the things I learned was how to drive through waves and understand that the boat doesn't go any faster or slower if you go really low through the waves.  So, we powered up, crashed on through, and it seemed to really work out going upwind," he said. “Good starts, getting off the line clean, and letting the crew do the rest was our recipe to success.” Crew members on HONEYBADGER included Ian Coleman, Patrick Wilson and Brendan Feeney.

Rounding out the top three in the J/70s were Maddy Ploch’s USA 88 crew taking home the silver, while Bowe’s TEA DANCE SNAKE picked up the bronze.

Top marks in the J/88 fleet went to Iris Vogel and the crew of DEVIATION, who struggled with shifty conditions and battled through a four-way tie for second place on the first day of racing. The team found its groove over the next two days and focused on boatspeed.

"In this fleet, we just had to be fast," says Vogel. "Everyone is so close and so good. One mistake and you go from first to fifth. Our goal was to get a good start, and go as fast as we can, and hold on to it."

The balance of the podium went to the Leahey’s DUTCH in second place and Bill Purdy’s WHIRLWIND in third position.

White’s YouREGATTA split 1st and 2nd in the last two races with Ogden’s BUCKAROO to maintain their lead in the J/24 class.  Behind Ogden was Quaid’s ICE CUBE in third.

The J/111s saw the Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF hang on to their lead to take the class win.  Behind them, it was an anxiety-ridden last two races, culminating in a tie-breaker.  Such is the scenario for the incredibly tight racing in the class.  Winning the tie-break on 21 pts each was Davis’ SHAMROCK over Hill’s SITELLA.

Finally, PHRF 2 Racing Spinnaker class saw Mannix’s J/29 SEMPER FI get on the podium, again, for what seemed like the dozenth time in the St Pete NOOD Regatta!  His crew from Largo, Florida took home the silver. They were followed by Cussins’ J/105 FIRE & ICE in third position.  Watch the interview of the Overall Winner- Travis Odenbach and HONEYBADGER team

Sailing video highlights
Friday- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72ijfe
Saturday- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72iztl
Sunday- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72kina
For more Helly Hansen St Petersburg NOOD Regatta sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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