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The JAM Regatta story

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Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/09/2005 : 21:26:39

This past Saturday was the annual JAM regatta at Edgewater. This JAM regatta is an open regatta for racers and non racers alike - whereas some of the other regattas require membership in the racing fleet. It is a generally fun event, but the competition is usually pretty stiff because the real racers have their pride to defend. Having placed second in our class last year, Harvey and I decided we'd do it again. We were also able to grab Chip, the crew (ringer) we had with us for the race last season. Who, along with us had a blast - although we weren't sure if that was on the water or the post race party.

I knocked off work early the Friday before to have the yard crew pull the boat and hose the beard off the bottom. Surprisingly, there wasn't as much growth as the prior year but there was enough to grab a half of a knot or so. The prior year was a drifter so I threw a case of beer and 3 bags of ice in the box just in case. After putting all the cushions in the center of the boat, taking off the microwave all the fenders and spare lines, I went home for some rest.

The race is set up so that the slowest boats start first with a 10 minute lag between the 3 starts. E&F fleets going first at 10:30. Checking in with a 241 JAM rating on the PHRF certificate, we were almost guranteed a first start. Little did I know when we picked up the scratch sheet, we were the "anti-scratch" boat out of 42 or so boats. Anti scratch - my slang for the slowest boat in the fleet. With the courses ranging from 8 to 12 miles, the scratch boat, a 1D35 would owe us roughly half an hour.

All of the courses for this regatta are atypical, The course they wound up selecting would be a 2.5 mile reach rounding to stbd a 1.2 mile beat to weather rounding the next mark to starboard a dead down leg about 3 miles with a 1.5 mile tight reach to the finish

(note: lake erie phrf rating for spin is 231 up 3 from last years 228)

Needless to say, we don't race The Flying Wasp much more than 2 or 3 times a season. Harvey races strict J-24 one design and I have been part of an Evelyn 32 crew for the better part of nine years. That, combined with the PHRF rating, our pub stories about finding the boat in a "swamp" (boat boneyard) and the slowest boat in the fleet we were the under-dog, the butt of all the jokes and the crowd favorite all rolled into one. The running joke was that we needed to start the prior week to finish in time.

We cracked our first soda on the way out of the harbor, thinking that there might not even be enough wind to race. As we got out from behind the breakwall, we were surprised to find a steady 4kt breeze coming out of the NE. After hoisting a main, we stowed the motor down below and got ready to race. We split the helming duties, and Chip took the start plus the first leg. Thinking he was in his J-22 he drastically overestimated the speed of a c-25 in light air. We were late to the line in a 12 boat start. Normally, this would mean fresh air, but everyone was late. We squeezed in at the pin and tacked away to get left. If the wind didn't go left, we were committed and hosed. Mistake two came about 15 minutes later when I realized I had the wrong course in the GPS. That actually became a blessing about 10 minutes after that when the wind shut off in the middle of the course. About an hour into the race we rounded the first mark with about half our the fleet in front of us, and half behind. The hilight here was when Chip shut the door on his father-in-law sailing his Beneteau 47 dot something. He called for mark room and held the inside. He of course dusted us on the next upwind leg, but Chip had his story for the post race picnic. To put the PHRF into perspective, we were passed at the first mark by the scratch boat and the Beneteau - who both made up 20 minutes by the first mark.

Staying left on the next leg the fleet really stretched out. I knew we made on a ton of boats, but I couldn't find anyone in our fleet anywhere ahead or behind. At least immediately behind? Harvey took the helm on the downwind and working down in the puffs we managed to put a few more boatlengths on the one boat behind us I could make out. A catalina 30 who was in our fleet.

I took the helm for the tight reach to the finish, we were actually making on some C&D class boats at this point, but we were going to run out of real estate before we could really do any damage. After finishing, we put the motor back on and headed in. In a race like that, you really don't have an idea how you did. The club is large enough that you can't see who arrived before you unless they are docked in your vicinity. We'd have to wait for the results on this one. We knew we had two boats at this point, so with five in our fleet, that was guranteed 3rd.

Except that when they finally got to our fleet, they called someone else for third. No prelims were posted, so now I was really wondering what happened. The one sail number I saw wasn't on the sheet, could they have been in our fleet as a late entrant?

Second place was announced, and Chip looked at me and said - we took first. I couldn't figure out how he new until I realized the skipper accepting the award was the guy from the Catalina 30. Any boat we beat, we beat outright without handicap, so along with Chip, I now knew we had first.

Being the underdog, and the last to be announced before they started serving food we received the most applause. I like to think it had to do with the underdog thing, but there were a lot of hungry sailors. Turns out we were in the top 15 overall.

I'm still not convinced these things are competitive outside of themselves, but I am getting a bit closer.

dw

D. Wolff
DPO C25 Hull 401
Currently Sailing "Champagne and Ripple" 1982 O'day 30

Chief Measurer 2002-2006
Vice-commodore 2007

Edited by - Champipple on 08/09/2005 21:51:25

Sea Trac
Master Marine Consultant

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Vanuatu
1357 Posts

Response Posted - 08/09/2005 : 22:04:24

Huzzay!

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Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 08/10/2005 : 07:05:00

Well done Duane! Someday I hope to race, sounds like a lot of fun.

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PZell
Admiral

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USA
548 Posts

Response Posted - 08/10/2005 : 10:16:03

Cool. Sounds like the weekly races I started doing this year. It's really great to dust a bigger boat once in a while. Did it last night and it felt good.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 08/10/2005 : 10:37:59

I haven't beat anyone since I began sailing Catalinas, I admire those who can.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.