Blustery, Sunny SPERRY Charleston Race Week

(Charleston, SC)- No question, there is no more picturesque sight than Charleston Harbor during the SPERRY Charleston Race Week regatta that brings international recognition to the historic city. A fleet of almost 260 sailboats in 18 different classes took over almost every inch of the Cooper River and was truly a sight to behold all weekend-long. With seven different race courses set in various pockets of Charleston Harbor, a spectator viewing from land could see colorful billowing sails everywhere they looked!  And, what a spectacle it was for three straight days of sailing.

It is not hard to see why over 115 J/Teams enjoyed their annual spring pilgrimage down to this jewel in the deep South.  No one could complain, three straight days of good weather, good breezes, plenty of sun, and random squalls on Sunday to spice things up a bit!

The regatta featured six one-design J/Classes, including J/22s, J/24s, J/70s, J/80s, J/88s, and J/105s.  In addition, there were two “Pursuit-style” sailing divisions for both PHRF and ORC handicap rated boats that includes a J/30, J/35, J/109s, J/111s, J/120s and a J/122.

Day 1- Beautiful Southeasters!
The weekend got off to a rip-roaring start with south-southeasterly winds ranging from 10 to 20 knots, allowing organizers to complete four races for most of the classes doing windward-leeward courses.

There was some great action on the inside courses with the wind shifting wildly at times and a short squall wreaking some havoc then causing conditions to change significantly.

Class newcomer Buddy Cribb sailed VICTORY into the early lead in the J/70 class, largest of the regatta with 56 boats. Barr Batzer was aboard as tactician while Scott Ewing (headsail trimmer) and Chris Manson-Hing (bow) completed the crew as VICTORY posted a solid score line of 1-3-4.

“We got good starts, we went the right way and we went fast. We also didn’t do anything too risky,” said Cribb, a resident of Jupiter, Florida.

Cribb had been sailing in the Etchells class for 15 years and suddenly decided to “give something different a try.” The Coral Reef Yacht Club member has about nine regattas under his belt and has clearly climbed the learning curve quite quickly.

J/70 class leaders have requested just three races per day and VICTORY holds a two-point lead over Joel Ronning and the CATAPULT team going into Saturday’s action.

“This is a really tough fleet, so we’ll see if we can keep it going,” said Cribb, whose last appearance at Sperry Charleston Race Week came about eight years ago with the Etchells.

Mike Bruno has been bringing his J/88 WINGS to Sperry Charleston Race Week for several years and has never come away victorious– not even a runner-up finish or, for that matter, anywhere near the podium! The Armonk, New York native is hoping his team’s success on Friday is a good omen as WINGS began the regatta with results of 2-2-1 before a blown-out spinnaker led to a fifth in Race 4.

“We had really good starts and really good boat speed,” Bruno said. “Our boat tends to be quicker in a breeze so we were glad to see the velocity increase as the day went along.”

Bruno said Wings was overlapped with EXILE and SPACEMAN SPIFF at the finish of the two races it placed second. “For some reasons I’ve been jinxed in this regatta. Hopefully, things will finally come together this year,” he said.

Warrior Sailing 1, skippered by Sammy Hodges, grabbed the early lead in the J/22 class after winning two races and placing second in two others. Navy veteran Ruben Munoz (jib) and Army veteran Troy Rasmussen (main) are the warriors aboard the boat.

“This is my first time competing here at Charleston and it was really cool out there,” Munoz said. “We worked really well together as a team, which was great to see.”

College of Charleston sailor Carson Shields worked the bow aboard Warrior Sailing 1, which benefitted from doing two practice sessions on Thursday. “I’m so impressed with the improvement Ruben and Troy made in the span of just one day on the boat,” Hodges said.

On the offshore Hybrid Pursuit classes, the ORC Class A, B and C entries had a light start to the day– taking more than three hours to complete the 7.4-mile out-bound course due to the flood current and light air under eight knots.

Despite the light air and challenging conditions, the Pursuit Race concept seemed to work across the wide variety of boat types in this division– ranging from Victor Wild’s speedy TP52 Fox to Miles Martschink’s J/105– because the racing in corrected time was also close with the top eight places in Race 1 within one minute.

Robin Team, a multi-time Palmetto Trophy winner, led the J/122 TEAMWORK to victory in both races on Friday. Team said the return race into Charleston Harbor, which began with a fleet start, was approximately 9 ½ miles due to a windward jaunt to a drop mark.

“We’re primarily accustomed to doing windward-leeward courses around the buoys so this point-to-point racing was a little different for us, but a fun challenge for our crew,” Team said.

Team credited tactician Jonathan Bartlett with making some “extraordinary calls” during the Pursuit Race into the Atlantic Ocean. “That, coupled with Kevin Ryman’s great navigation, gave us a leg up on the race out,” said Team, who praised his brother Adam for doing an “incredible job” of trimming the spinnaker during the race back into the harbor, which was primarily a downwind affair.

Day 2- Sunny, Breezy Southerly, Again?!
Charleston Harbor was pretty much becalmed as sailors made their way to the docks on Saturday morning. Some of the professional tacticians encouraged event director Randy Draftz to post an onshore postponement in order to give the sea breeze time to fill in.

However, Draftz has been running Sperry Charleston Race Week for a long time and knows the conditions here better than anyone. He decided to send the 257-boat fleet out on time, but instructed principal race officers on all seven circles to error on the side of caution. “We’d rather have one good race than three bad ones,” Draftz said.

It turns out concerns about the wind velocity were unfounded. In typical Charleston fashion, the breeze built throughout the day and organizers got in four races again on Saturday- two light air starts in the morning followed by two medium breeze starts in the afternoon. Most importantly, all the racing was fair and gave the sailors quality racing in the challenging venue.

“It was a very challenging day on the water,” said Pamela Rose, skipper of the J/70 ROSEBUD. “I give my crew a lot of credit for having the ability to tune the boat accurately for the changing conditions.”

Joel Ronning and his CATAPULT crew had a dominant day within the J/70 fleet. Ronning steered CATAPULT to victory in all four races, an extremely difficult accomplishment considering the caliber of competition.

“It was a really fun day to say the least,” said Ronning, who went right back on the water for an evening sail with his daughter and girlfriend.

Class veteran Victor Diaz De Leon was calling tactics on CATAPULT with Charleston local Patrick Wilson trimming the headsails and Christopher Stocke working the bow. Factor in a win to close out Friday’s action and Catapult has posted five straight bullets en route to a low score of 14 points.

“One thing about this team is that we have a tremendous amount of fun together. It’s a very harmonious group,” said Ronning, who captured J/70 class and earned the Charleston Race Week Cup in 2017. “Victor Diaz is a brilliant tactician and the communication on the boat is tremendous. Patrick and Christopher are fantastic about feeding information to Victor.”

ROSEBUD held second place in J/70 class, 19 points behind CATAPULT and six ahead of VICTORY (Buddy Cribb). This was Rose’s third time at Sperry Charleston Race Week and this is the highest she has been in J/70 class.

“I love coming to Charleston because it’s such a dynamite venue. This is by far the best results I’ve had in this regatta and it’s because I have such a great crew,” Rose said.

Lucas Calabrese, part of the 2018 J/70 World Championship crew, is calling tactics for the Chicago & Florida owner along with Jud Smith (the 2018 J/70 World Champion skipper). “It’s really tough out there, so you have to keep your head out of the boat and work hard to stay in phase,” Calabrese said.

SHENANIGANS, sailed by the husband and wife tandem of Bill and Shannon Lockwood, had set a strong pace in J/80 class- getting the gun in five of eight starts. The Annapolis boat has a couple seconds and a third for a low score of nine points, but was still just three clear of the second place boat. ELEVEN, another Annapolis entry skippered by Bert Carp, had also posted a steady string of top three finishes highlighted by three bullets.

Carter White and his crew on YouREGATTA had put forth a masterful performance in J/24 class, winning six straight races after beginning the regatta with a second. White, who hails from Portland, Maine, had built an eight-point lead on LEVEL PELICAN (Crisp McDonald).

Day 3-  Spectacular, Blustery Finale
The regatta concluded in spectacular fashion with strong winds producing exciting action and several classes being decided during the last race.

The J/88 class saw the battle go right down to the wire in the final race. Mike Bruno said following Friday’s racing that he’d been jinxed at Sperry Charleston Race Week, suffering problems that prevented podium finishes in 2018 and 2017. He thought his bad luck would be extended when WINGS was ruled on-course-side in Race 9 and had to restart.

“We came into the day saying we were going to be conservative and not make any mistakes. Then, we got tangled up with another boat at the start and right out of the gate we were over early,” said Bruno, who did manage to battle back to finish sixth in the 10-boat fleet. “We were pretty glum going into the last race. I thought we’d blown it again.”  At that point, Bruno’s WINGS team had dropped into 2nd place, two points back from the lead.

However, there was a happy ending as WINGS redeemed itself big-time in Race 10, which was held in 20-25 knot south-southwesterly winds with gusts approaching 30 kts. WINGS basically had to win the race and hope for the best, letting the chips fall where they may. After rough going on the first weather leg, WINGS rounded the first weather mark in sixth, then moved up a couple places by the downwind rounding. Bruno and crew turned it on from there, passing the remaining three boats to get the gun in a cloud of spray on the final, full-on, planing-mode run into the downwind finish line.

That victory in the final start of the three-day regatta gave WINGS a two-point victory over ALBONDINGAS (Justin Scagnelli, West Nyack, NY), leading Bruno to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Third was Rob Ruhlman’s family crew on SPACEMAN SPIFF from Cleveland, OH.

“What an exciting way to win a regatta. To come from behind like that was thrilling and I feel fantastic,” Bruno said. “We like heavy air, so we were really happy when the breeze really came on for that last race. It was really exhilarating blasting downwind in planing mode and passing boat after boat.”

Bruno noted the average age of his crew is 60, with bow man Jonathan Asch checking in at 66. Stuart Johnstone called tactics, Chris Morgan trimmed the main, while Steve Lopez and Tim Randall teamed to trim the headsails aboard Wings.

TEAMWORK, a J/122 owned by Robin Team of Lexington, North Carolina, earned the Palmetto Trophy for the fifth time at Sperry Charleston Race Week! Jonathan Bartlett called tactics on TEAMWORK, which won all six races in ORC B class on the Hybrid Pursuit course.

“We’ve been coming to Charleston for a long time and we absolutely love this regatta,” said Team, whose previous Palmetto Trophy wins were as top PHRF entry. Now TEAMWORK has another one for their trophy shelf for best performance among ORC entries after duking it out with the J/111 SITELLA (Ian Hill, Chesapeake, VA).

“We had a great time mixing it up with Sitella, which is always well-sailed,” Team said. “We had the boat well-prepped and dialed in from the beginning, while our crew work was incredible once again.”

Joel Ronning and his CATAPULT crew secured a surprisingly convincing victory in J/70 class. Victor Diaz De Leon served as tactician on CATAPULT, which won six of nine races in posting a low score of 20 points– 20 better than runner-up ROSEBUD (Pamela Rose, Aventura, FL).  Third went to Cribb’s VICTORY, fourth to Henry Brauer’s RASCAL and fifth to John & Molly Baxter’s TEAM VINEYARD VINES.

“We had some really fortunate breaks this week. There is nothing like having luck on your side. Sometimes the karma is with you and this is one of those instances,” said Ronning, a resident of Excelsior, Minnesota. “I’ve always loved sailing in Charleston and this year’s regatta was an awful lot of fun.”

Diaz De Leon joined the team about six months ago and Ronning has been impressed by the way he’s blended in with holdovers Christopher Stocke (bow) and Patrick Wilson (headsail trimmer).

“Our team communication is the strongest I’ve ever seen on a boat. We’ve been clicking really well together and the chemistry is the best it’s ever been on the boat,” Ronning said. “Victor was getting great information from Chris and Patrick and was really on fire this week in terms of making the calls.”

Carter White skippered YouREGATTA to the most dominant victory of 2019 Sperry Charleston Race Week, winning seven straight races in J/24 class after placing second in Friday’s opener. YouREGATTA did not start Race 9 and still finished 12 points clear of Level Pelican (Crisp McDonald (Charleston, S.C.). Third was Cameron Rylance’s THAT’LL DO PIG.

Molly White worked the bow for her husband, who has been racing a J/24 for more than two decades. Michael McAllister called tactics, Ted Wiedeke trimmed the spinnaker while Chris Lombardo trimmed the genoa.

“It’s really about our team. We’ve been sailing together for four years and do five to six major regattas a year,” said White, who hails from Portland, Maine. “We have a routine that really works and puts us in a different league. Our consistency and ability to adapt to changing conditions is crucial. We had to shift gears constantly and our crew is capable of doing that.”

SHENANIGANS came away as winner of J/80 class following a tight three-way battle with fellow Annapolis entry ELEVEN (Bert Carp). Shannon Lockwood steered while her father Bill trimmed the main. Jeff Todd handled headsails while his daughter Cassie worked the bow.

“We had a great battle with Bert, who we race against on Thursday nights in Annapolis,” said Shannon Lockwood, who was a member of the keelboat team at St. Mary’s College. “I thought our team handled the boat well and paid attention to the puffy and shifty conditions. We were also conservative and smart with our maneuvers. It’s always cool to win, especially at such a major regatta like Charleston so we’re super psyched.”

Warrior Sailing 1, skippered by Sammy Hodges, led from start to finish in J/22 class – winning five races and having the luxury of skipping the last. Navy veteran Ruben Munoz (jib) and Army veteran Troy Rasmussen (main) were the warriors aboard the boat. “Tiger Woods won the Masters today, but that doesn’t even compare to what we did,” Munoz said proudly. “We came here to have fun and learn so winning is icing on the cake.”

This was the first sailing experience for Rasmussen, who gave credit to Hodges for helming and coaching at the same time. “Sammy was awesome about keeping us on point and teaching all the little nuances,” he said.

Finally on the last day of competition the wind gods permitted the ORC Hybrid Pursuit entries to enjoy the intended three-race daily format: a morning pursuit distance race from the harbor to the offshore course area, followed by a windward-leeward buoy race, and ending with another distance race to the harbor.

“This Hybrid Pursuit style was well received by all the boats and we enjoyed it,” Team said.

Principal race officer added a second windward-leeward race to make up for the fact Saturday’s Hybrid Pursuit was abandoned. ORC D was won by SKIMMER, a locally-based J/105 team led by Miles Martschink and Ben Hagood.

“This was our first experience with ORC racing,” said Tucker, “and with some more measurements we probably could have optimized our rating a little better. Yet on the whole we thought the ratings were fair.”

A pair of Charleston entries came out on top on the regular Pursuit Race courses with Wadmalaw Island resident Bill Hanckel skippering his J/120 EMOCEAN to a two-point victory in Spinnaker PHRF A. Third were “the kids”, the College of Charleston Sailing Team racing the beautifully restored J/36 SOUL. Sailing photo credits- Nancy Bloom / Priscilla Parker / TimWilkes.com / Photoboat.com-Alan Clark.  For more Charleston Race Week sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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