Etchells sailor Argyle Campbell won the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta overall title today in San Diego, winning his fleet by a narrow margin and being selected among the regatta’s other class winners to represent San Diego at the NOOD Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October.

Campbell (Newport Beach, Calif.) previously won the overall title in 2017 in his first NOOD sailing the Etchells class. This year, he returned with crewmembers Jesse Kirkland, Chuck Easton and Alex Curtiss to top the 19-boat fleet.

“It was a great weekend out on the ocean,” said Curtiss, trimmer on Rock On. “We did a good job of seeing the landmines [windless areas] on the course, and positioning ourselves on the good side. Our motto was to keep it groovy and keep a good vibe going so good things could happen.

“It would be an amazing chance to go down to the BVIs and represent our fleet.”

Pete Melvin, onboard his new F18 Covid 18, mastered the South Bay’s shifty wind conditions to earn the F18 catamaran class win with his 26-year-old son James as crew. “We had a bit of everything throughout the weekend — from two to 20-plus knots,” said Melvin.

The F18s used Friday as an unofficial race day, and Melvin said it was probably the fastest he’s ever gone on an F18, which is saying something for the multiple world champion catamaran sailor and F18 boat designer. “James and I were double trapping downwind, which really worked for us especially in the flat water [typically only the crew uses the trapeze downwind]. It was a lot fun; we were really hauling.”

Throughout the weekend’s full range of conditions, Melvin consistently posted first and second places. He attributes their success to being aware of conditions on the race course. “We had good boatspeed and that always helps, but I think the biggest gains and losses were made on puffs and shifts and going the right way. It definitely wasn’t straightforward; we had our good and bad moments.”

The best-friend team of Alice Schmid (15) and skipper Samantha Gardner (16) overtook their training partners today to earn first place in the 29er fleet. “We’re really excited; it felt so good to have the girls out front,” said Schmid.

Over the past year, the local teams of Gardner and Schmid have trained with the other two podium teams, Ian and Noah Nyenhuis (second place), and Alice’s younger brother Anton Schmid and Peter Joslin.

Schmid said today’s light air and flat-water conditions in the South Bay played to their strengths. “We practiced a lot in those conditions and felt really fast today; we just kind of sailed away from the group.”

Their discipline to manage the tricky conditions also paid off. “Our game plan today was to get off the line well and know where we wanted to go,” Schmid said. “From there we’d play individual shifts and focus on leading the fleet. We were conservative, but also made sure we went where we wanted to go.”

Bill Ramacciotti and Mike Davies J/24 Greenback Boogie also leapfrogged into first place today thanks to two first-place finishes and one second. “We had super close racing all weekend among our fleet,” said Ramacciotti. “It was so much fun to see us finishing these races within seconds of each other.”

Four of the five J/24s are local to San Diego, and Ramacciotti and Davies have a concerted effort underway to build the class. “We’re not big budget programs and our goal is to keep it accessible and get more people out sailing,” said Ramacciotti. “We are all weekend warriors so to speak with different years of experience and these boats provide the vehicle to help us all continue learning.

They also agreed that the winning strategy today was picking sides. “Calling the line and committing to one side or another was crucial, Ramacciotti said, “but when you sail in San Diego with shifty winds, it really comes down to boatspeed and crew work.”

Final results click here.

With the conclusion of the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta San Diego, the series moves to St. Petersburg, Florida, in April, then onto Annapolis in May, Chicago in June and Marblehead in July.

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The complete Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta San Diego roster took to the waters off San Diego today for a mix of fleet and distance racing, including the inaugural North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race.

A new element to the NOOD Regatta series, the doublehanded race sent nine two-person teams on boats ranging from 28- to 48-feet around a 30-mile long course spanning San Diego Bay and offshore near Point Loma, rounding virtual and navigational marks.

Tim Forderer and his teammate Christopher Dalton, on HolyToledo West, earned the top spot. HolyToledo West was one of four Hobie 33s in the fleet. The Hobie 33s have long been a favorite boat for distance racing, and Forderer has sailed the lightweight, planing sportboat since he stepped on board Hull No. 1—named Holy Toledo—in the 1980s. Forderer now owns HolyToledo West, which is hull No. 3. “It’s super sentimental for me to race this boat,” he says.”

He credits COVID restrictions for elevating his appreciation for the boat, having spent much of last year singlehanding it around the San Diego area. He teamed up with Dalton for today’s distance race and the two had an “absolute blast, even if conditions didn’t quite live up to the boat’s potential.”

Kyle Vanderspek, on the Hobie 33 Aloha, also enjoyed the new doublehanded format. “We had a good start, and the lighter conditions gave us a chance to get in the groove of doublehanded sailing, which we don’t do a lot of here in SoCal,” said Vanderspek, who finished third overall.

“Upwind, we struggled a bit, and we watched HolyToledo West extend their lead on the rest of the Hobies,” Vanderspek said. “Then, they even overtook the Santa Cruz 37, which was great to see. Overall, it was a sunny day, nice and relaxing. What more can you ask for?”

The Ocean Course hosted the Etchells, J/105s, Beneteau 36.7s and 40.7s for three races in four to 10 knots of wind, with the added challenge of an unexpected large ocean swell.

Argyle Campbell and his Rock On team are currently leading the 19-boat Etchells fleet. According to Campbell, racing on the same course with the larger 40-foot boats of the other fleets presents yet another challenge for the smaller Etchells, for better or worse. “You can hear some of the other teams grousing a bit about sailing with the larger boats — and I could even hear it on board our boat a little bit,” Campbell said.

“That is, until the last race when we were in third place, and the first two boats got blanketed by a 40.7. We sailed right by them to win the race, and all the grousing on board our boat just kind of stopped,” he said with a laugh.

A familiar name topping the Beneteau 36.7 scoreboard is local champion Chick Pyle and the Kea crew, which began the regatta with three first places today. Pyle has been racing Beneteau 36.7s for almost 20 years, and he attributes Kea’s success to its longtime, loyal and talented crew, who essentially help “drag him around the course.”

He also enjoyed welcoming a new crew on board—former America’s Cup sailor and current San Diego YC Commodore Bill Campbell—who Pyle calls a special guest star tactician.

On the South Bay circle, the J/24s joined the International 14s, Viper 640s and 29ers and F18 catamarans. Longtime catamaran sailor and boat designer Pete Melvin quickly established his lead in the F18s, sailing with his son James.

In the five-strong J/24 fleet, four San Diego teams welcomed first-time NOOD competitor Brian Dolan and his Calamity team from Tucson, Ariz. Dolan currently sits in third place behind leaders Christian Seidel on Cygnet 2, and William Ramacciotti on Greenback Boogie, in first and second place respectively.

The Vipers, International 14s and 29ers have now completed between six to eight races, with Geoff Faudy’s Boomslang, Kris Bundy’s I-14 and Ian Nyenhuis’s 994 continuing to lead their respective fleets.

Racing concludes tomorrow and the overall winner will be selected to represent San Diego at the Helly Hansen NOOD Caribbean Championship.

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The high-performance International 14s, Vipers, and 29er sailboat fleets buzzed around San Diego’s South Bay today to officially kick off the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta San Diego, the opening event for North America’s largest regatta series.

Today’s three races provided the perfect opportunity to shake the dust off for many sailors like Kris Bundy, who hadn’t stepped foot on his International 14 boat in a year and a half. Despite the lack of practice time, he and teammate Jamie Hanseler finished today with a 1-point lead in the nine-boat fleet. But, that didn’t come without its challenges Bundy says. He sheepishly admitted that in the second race, they mishandled a port-starboard upwind cross as one of the shifts came through, and ‘love-tapped’ fellow I-14 competitor Mikey Radziejowski’s SIngle Wide stern.

“We were duking it out with Mikey and Evan (currently are in second place), and we may have accidentally hit them. They were telling us to cross, we couldn’t hear and I was slow to duck even despite Mikey’s evasive actions.

“So after both boats got back up, Mikey went on to win the race, and we also got to practice our circles,” Bundy said with a laugh. “Needless to say, we had the full experience today getting back to racing.”

Geoff Fargo, sailing his Viper 640 Boomslang, also hadn’t raced since August 2019. “Our focus this weekend is on the basics,” Fargo says. “First, make sure we got the boat put together right, and then just try to sail smart and not make too many mistakes.

“With the oscillating breeze, there were a lot of shifts on the course today. We really just tried to avoid taking any big risks and play it safe.”

The strategy thus far has paid off. With two second places and one first place, Fargo is 3 points ahead of fleet veteran Timothy Carter.

In the 29er fleet, the San Diego-based teenage brother duo of Ian and Noah Nyenhuis finished the first day with a perfect scoreline in the 11-boat fleet.

COVID canceled sailing plans for many teams over the past year, but the Nyenhuis’ have been able to continue their training. Sixteen-year-old Noah, who crews for his 14-year-old brother, credits San Diego YC’s growing 29er fleet and consistent training as a big benefit to helping raise their game.

This is, however, the first large fleet they’ve competed against in over a year, and the team’s plan is to “hopefully continue with our performance from today,” says Noah. “But even more, to continue implementing we’ve been working on the past couple of months and tie everything together. The biggest thing is to have fun and that we’re doing what we love.”

Racing continues tomorrow, with the addition of the F18s and J/24 fleets joining the South Bay circle, and the Ocean Course hosting the Beneteau 36.7 and 40.7s, Etchells and J/105s.

Saturday also marks the inaugural North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race, which will send competitors racing in a variety of boats on one long course spanning San Diego Bay and offshore near Point Loma, as well as the Cruising World Rally, which consists of a fleet of multihulls.

For results: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=13225

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For nearly three decades, the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta national series kicked off in St. Petersburg, Florida, in February, but a shift in the 2021 calendar will put Southern California sailing front and center with the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta San Diego, March 19 to 21.

With experienced race management teams at co-host yacht clubs, San Diego and Coronado, competitive sailors in the region can expect top-quality races on San Diego Bay for the regatta’s smaller boats, as well as the deeper waters off Coronado for larger keelboats. As the first major regatta of the SoCal spring sailing season, the annual event will be a draw for local and visiting teams keen to freshen their skills from the long offseason of 2020.

For Helly Hansen, the regatta series’ seven-year title sponsor, the San Diego stop is a welcome beginning to the new sailing year. While the usual after-racing social events will not be held, organizers are keen to provide the best possible experience on the water.

“At Helly Hansen we make gear for professionals to feel and stay alive, and that’s also true for all the sailors of the NOOD Regattas,” says Helly Hansen Watersports Marketing Manager, Jenny Daudlin. “While 2020 was a challenging year, Helly has continued to bring along innovative new styles. There were some cool pieces in 2020 that people didn’t get to see, so we’re looking forward to reconnecting with the sailors in different ways and providing them the best gear possible to enjoy their time on the water safely.”

One trend that emerged through 2020 was the popularity of day-race formats that require fewer crewmembers. This movement is also fueled by the expectation of a two-person offshore discipline being added to the 2024 Games. In response to this rising demand for shorthanded races, NOOD Regatta organizers, in partnership with North Sails, added the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race on Saturday, March 20. This daytime challenge will send competitors racing a variety of boats on one long course spanning San Diego Bay and offshore near Point Loma.

Rudolph Hasl, of San Diego, is one of the early registrants for the North Sails Doublehanded Race and says he’s looking forward to skippering his 48-foot raceboat around the course—with the sole assistance of his long-time bowman, Anthony Garcia.

“I’m really glad they’ve added this race to the regatta,” Hasl says. “Doing the typical windward/leeward buoy races all day can be tough on the crew—and the sails—so I like this format, as it offers plenty of excitement for me.”

Hasl, 78, raced doublehanded extensively when he lived in the Pacific Northwest, and now a full time SoCal resident, he says San Diego is just as challenging a venue to race, especially a boat the size of his J/145, Palaemon.

“We’re going to try our best to play it safely and carefully,” Hasl says, noting that he and Garcia will be using specialized sails that are easier for two people to handle. “This is the first time we’ll have doublehanded this particular boat. Anthony is a super bowman because he has his way of checking the lines are run correctly. The boat is set up in a way that I can tail halyards from the back while steering.”

Their biggest challenge, he says, may be keeping the boat’s massive spinnaker sail from ever touching the water. “We’ve sailed with it and I have a sense of what’s involved in the process and think we can control the beast,” Hasl says. “The key with doublehanded racing is just doing things deliberately.”

For decades, North Sails has supported doublehanded sailors in Europe where the passion for shorthanded sailing is unmatched. Inspired by the growth of this discipline, the U.S.-based North Sails team is tapping into the experience and expertise of class experts and designers from all over the world.

“North Sails is proud to partner with the NOOD Regattas to include a Doublehanded Distance Race in their 2021 events,” says Brian Janney, San Diego-based North Sails expert. “Doublehanded sailing challenges each team member to handle a range of jobs, opening the door to new opportunities and growing the sport. This is a great opportunity that anyone at any experience level can get involved in. We are excited to host the inaugural North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race in San Diego.”

As part of their Doublehanded Race initiative, North Sails will provide local support and expertise at all 2021 NOOD Regatta events offering the doublehanded race, as well as online resources for both new and experienced teams, which can be found at www.northsails.com

North Sails experts and sail-repair services will also be available in San Diego, serving all of the regatta’s other one-design classes, which span from the smaller International 14 and 29er dinghy classes to the Beneteau First 40.7 keelboats, a fixture of the San Diego NOOD Regatta, alongside the Beneteau 36.7s. The two Beneteau classes, as well as Etchells and J/105s, and possibly J/24s, will race on the Pacific off Point Loma. The NOOD’s Formula 18 catamarans, International 14s, Viper 640s, and 29ers will sail their races on San Diego Bay.

The final new addition to the NOOD Regatta series is the Cruising World Rally Fleet, which in San Diego will feature larger performance multihulls exclusively.

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With a record 38 boats having competed in 7 classes in the 2019 edition of the California Offshore Race Week, many Southern California boats use the race as a Transpac Race qualifier (must sail a 150nm race or passage in year prior to Transpac with a specified number of the same crew on board). Additionally, teams from Northern California make their way through the CA Offshore Race Week and conclude the series with the SoCal 300.

This year, the race had several international teams, including first-to-finish Alive (Phillip Turner’s RP 66), first in Class A and first overall corrected time Maverick (Quentin Stewart’s Infiniti 46R), Taurus (Barrington Darcy’s Farr 40) which sailed the CORW series but had to retire prior to the SoCal 300 with an issue with their boat). Next up for these two teams is the Transpac race, where they will compete in Division 1 against the heavy hitters such as record holder Comanche and two-time Barn Door winner Rio100.

The Santa Cruz 50/52 class has been a mainstay in the CA Offshore Race Week since the beginning. Dave MacEwen’s Lucky Duck and Bill Helvestine’s Deception have raced all four of the series since it began in 2016. This year in the Santa Cruz class, the series belonged to Michael Moradzadeh’s Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca, who was first in the Spinnaker Cup, second in Coastal Cup, first in the SoCal 300 and first in the Series for the SC class.

Michael Moradzadeh (Oaxaca): “The host clubs made everyone feel like a winner, but we were exceptionally pleased to collect trophies at each stop. The courses and conditions provided great opportunity for the Santa Cruz 50 and 52s to cash in on preparation and practice. Some exceptional crew members (Liz Baylis, Dee Caffari, and more) allowed us to sail to our potential. Even so, we were thrilled to wake up to discover we had corrected out at the top of the fleet [for the Series].”

Bill Helvestine (Deception): “As usual the SoCal 300 delivered a wide array of sailing conditions, from hours of close reaching in nearly 30 knots to hours of nearly becalmed sailing with a windseeker. The thing we enjoyed most was sailing throughout the race in a relatively close cluster of competitive boats. We usually knew where our competitors were, and there were close crossings and position changes throughout the race.”

The SoCal 300 Class B winner was John Raymont’s Andrews 40 Fast Exit, in a highly competitive 11 boat class. Many of the same boats from Class B (Zero Gravity, Velvet Hammer, Cipango, Bretwalda3) will face off again in Transpac Division 3.

Zachery Anderson’s J/125 Velvet Hammer had an incredible week competing in the full 3 race series and winning the overall CA Offshore Race Week title. They were in the series class against Maverick and Alive, chasing them down the coast all week long. In the end, the title was theirs as they had the best corrected time in the SoCal 300 of all series participants.

Zachery Anderson (Velvet Hammer): “The whole race week was ideal. Each race of the series provided different challenges and conditions. It was special to leave the San Francisco Bay and sail down the coast with the whales. For us, Coastal Cup was the highlight. The conditions were perfect for the J/125. We were up on the step for hours. It was spectacular to have sustained boat speeds in the teens and twenties all night. For the SoCal 300 we transitioned to five crew in the prep for our Transpac run this summer. The race was like a mini Transpac, big breeze and reaching off the coast then a nice downwind run. We went into this race as a tune up for Transpac and the first major offshore racing we have done on the J/125. I am so proud of the Velvet Hammer crew was able to win the CORW. We are going into Transpac with a full head of steam.”

Don Jesberg raced the CA Offshore Race Week for the first time in 2019, in his Cal 40 Viva and racked up the trophies all week long. Viva won their class in the Spinnaker Cup, Coastal Cup, SoCal 300 and in the full CORW Series, and will line up against 6 other Cal 40s in this summer’s Transpac race.

Don Jesberg (Viva): “These regattas were our first races with Viva after acquiring the boat (originally Warpath) in November 2017. We have rebuilt the entire boat. I last raced a Cal 40 in the 2005 Transpac (Ralphie). I grew up sailing in various Cal boats. My father had a Cal 33 from 1972 to 1986. We raced that to Hawaii 3 times. The CORW series was an excellent opportunity to experience every possible wind and sea condition that we might experience in the upcoming Transpac 2019. We prefer the windy conditions of Pt Conception to the light air finishes in Santa Barbara and San Diego. The hospitality all week was outstanding. Thank you to all the clubs involved.”

Class D was won by Joe Markee’s Swede 34 Ohana, who came back in the final leg to edge out the Sparkman Stephens 67 Chubasco for the win.

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The Helly Hansen National Offshore One Design Regatta series returns to San Diego March 15 to 17. San Diego Yacht Club and Coronado Yacht Club will host the 21st edition of the NOOD regatta. More than 100 racing teams will compete on courses on South San Diego Bay and offshore of Point Loma and Coronado.

The only West Coast stop of our national regatta series will showcase a wide variety of raceboats, from two-person high-performance catamarans and dinghies (F18 cats, International 14s, and 29ers) to larger keelboats (from RS, J Boats, Beneteau and more) crewed by the region’s top amateur and professional sailors. Saturday’s racing features the North Sails Rally, which will have two divisions (monohull and multihull) sailing a pursuit-style race through San Diego Bay.

Included among this year’s 13-boat Viper 640 fleet will be skipper Mike Pentacost, of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., who was selected as the San Diego NOOD’s overall winner in 2018. This year, Pentacost and his teammates will use the NOOD to prepare for the Viper 640 World Championships in August, in Alamitos Bay.

“Every regatta is a step to the world championship,” Pentacost says, “so it’s important for us to sail in all types of conditions. In San Diego, the water is a lot flatter than where we sail in Alamitos. There’s more current in the San Diego Bay and the winds are trickier.”

The NOOD will also be an opportunity for Pentacost and his crewmates, Garrett Brown and Chuck Tripp, to assess their competition in their first major regatta of the 2019 racing season. “Because of the Worlds being in Alamitos, there will be really good sailors this year, as well as a lot of new teams, so the NOOD gives us an opportunity to see where they’re at and what changes they’ve made since last year.”

RELATED: Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta 2018: Sunday Photos

An exciting new addition to the regatta will be the RS21 fleet, with new owners, charters, and sailing program directors all getting their first taste of racing the 21-footer, which is conceptualized as an ideal boat for yacht club programs, team racing, and one-design racing. The San Diego NOOD will serve as the first event in a partnership with RS Sailing and the NOOD Regattas, aimed at introducing the boat to club sailors in key venues in North America.

Spectators can view the offshore races from Coronado on Saturday and Sunday and from bay vantage points or private vessels, Friday through Sunday. Evening parties at Coronado YC and San Diego YC will bring sailors together, and on Saturday, March 16, Tucker Thompson, an award-winning commentator, producer and official host of the 35th America’s Cup, will provide an exclusive inside look at the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic challenge and their efforts to win the Cup in Auckland in 2021.

The editors of Sailing World magazine launched the regatta series in 1988 to grow interest in one-design keelboat racing. The regattas have grown to be North America’s largest and only sailing regatta series consisting of five events including St. Petersburg, Chicago, Annapolis, and Marblehead, Mass. The series concludes with an overall championship in the British Virgin Islands.

For race results each day, click here. For more information on the NOOD events, cilck here.

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