Heads up Melges 24 and J/70 sailors. This important PSA is for you.

With the support of the US Melges 24 Class Association, which will provide the necessary race committee units, Vakaros RaceSense technology will be used for both the Melges 24 and J/70 fleets at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg. 

Vakaros Atlas 2 units are required for RaceSense integration. For teams that do not own a unit, Vakaros has rental units available at vakaros.com. Go to the “Event” drop down menu, scroll to the bottom of the list and select “HH SWRS St. Pete 2026.” 

Rental units will be shipped directly to Ed Furry, of Sail22, who will be onsite in St. Petersburg for the duration of the regatta to assist with setup and usage.

Important note: Competitors will need to reserve a rental unit at least 7 days before registration check in on February 12.

Ed Furry will be stationed in the Parkview Room at St. Petersburg YC (second floor, door adjacent to pool and Tiki Bar) during the Regatta registration window (1600 to 1900) on February 12 to assist with RaceSense unit sync, support and tutorials.

For direct contact or questions regarding Vakaros and RaceSense, contact Doug Wake at doug@vakaros.com or Ed Furry at ed@sail22.com

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Featuring both a new name and event branding, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series will kick off its 33rd season in St. Petersburg in February. Formerly called the National Offshore One-Design Regatta, the format was an immediate success with its unique concept of racing level in larger production boats, its unrivaled post-racing social experiences and its professional race management. The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series grew nationally and remains the most popular weekend racing series in the United States. 
 
The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series today encompasses more than larger one-design raceboats. Embracing popular fleets at each location, the regatta series now features many different boat types: dinghies, multihulls, and keelboats that race under established handicap systems.

“I’ve been involved with this regatta series for 28 years and I’ve witnessed firsthand the evolution of the events, the host cities, the clubs and especially the classes we host,” says Dave Reed, Sailing World’s editor. “In the early days, with as many as nine events in one season, it was a lot of big boats, big crews and massive nightly socials, but with the sport transitioning to trailerable sportboats and dinghies we’ve evolved ourselves to include a wider variety of classes and showcasing all the vibrant sailing scene across the country. This change also allows us to explore launching future events under the Sailing World umbrella and growing our regatta portfolio.”

This year’s series will travel to St. Petersburg, Fla., San Diego; Annapolis, Md., Chicago, and Marblehead, Mass., thanks to the premier host yacht clubs located in these renowned sailing venues.

 
The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series will continue the traditions that have made it a sailor-favorite series like its post-racing parties and social events at each yacht club, and awarding one top-finishing team at each regatta a chance to compete in the overall season championship, held in the British Virgin Islands in October.
 
“The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series has grown exponentially since its inception and now reaches a very broad audience. It only made sense to evolve with the all-inclusive nature of our events,” said Sarah Renz, Director for Sailing Events, Bonnier Corp. “The sport has evolved dramatically since Sailing World started this series more than 30 years ago, and our goal is to reflect the evolution in our name and branding. It remains a national series, but there’s now much more than just offshore one-designs. With the support of our longtime partner, Helly Hansen, we can’t wait to get the 2022 season underway.”
 
In 2022, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series will feature races for cruising sailors, long-distance sailors, one-design fleets, handicap keelboat classes, dinghies and even remote-control sailboat racing. Competitors can expect the ever-popular social events with new and exciting additions to the nightly parties.
 
More information, including registration and race updates for the series can be found at sailingworld.com/regatta-series.

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Long-time Melges 24 sailor Gary Schwarting believes he had some help from above this weekend to win the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta overall title today in St. Petersburg. Schwarting’s Obsession won the Melges 24 fleet and was selected among the regatta’s other class winners to represent St. Petersburg at the Helly Hansen NOOD Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October.

“I’d like to dedicate this win to my friend George Haynie (longtime Melges 24 owner) who passed away Monday,” Schwarting says. “He should have been sailing with us this weekend and I think he was watching after us and got our name picked out of the hat.

“I’m in shock but it sounds like a ball and I can’t wait. We had a great weekend racing here with all kinds of conditions; I sailed with a group of really good sailors and fun people, and it all just clicked.”

For the first time in its 33-year history, the NOOD St. Pete moved from its traditional February slot, and the Sunshine City showed off its spring break charm for the 120 teams competing this weekend to deliver the full package of wind, waves and fun in the sun.

Coming into the last race today in the 10-boat Lightning fleet, it was a toss-up who would take top spot between Jenna Probst, Laura Jeffers and John Bauman. Probst, who sails for the University of Michigan sailing team, recently began skippering the family Lightning, named this event as Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner. She raced this weekend with her mother, Deb, and brother Tanner.

“Given how the first two races went today, we knew going into the last race that we had Jeffers and Bauman to contend with for the win,” Probst says. “The starting line was very pin-end favored and all three of us pushed each other to try and get poked out in front. And … we all ended up over early; not our best move,” she laughed.

“It definitely made for an interesting race. Thankfully we were able to recover and stayed dialed in, focusing on boat speed and somehow stayed ahead.”

Another collegiate sailor, Ian Hunter and his teammates Sam Baker and Telmo Basterra from Jacksonville University Sailing Team in north Florida, won the Thistle fleet, finishing today with three first-place finishes.

Final Results

The teammates really enjoyed the young vibe of the Thistle fleet. “Big thanks to Kevin [Bradley], who really pulled everybody together so we had a fleet for our first NOOD,” Hunter says. “It was great to see how close the fleet was and always pushing each other. One mistake would definitely cost you a lot.”

While it was a shifty weekend with many gains and losses to be had, depending how the teams played the wind, Baker says their weekend motto was to be in striking distance of the fleet. “Today, we really focused more on the fleet than watching the wind. Our goal was to stay in touch, make little decisions to pick up boats and it ended up paying off well.”

According to Hunter, there was a lot of discussion around the shifts on board their boat, but it’s his job as skipper to focus on boatspeed.

Marlene Plumley and Scott Steele won the Melges 15 class in her new boat Bubbles, with Kevin Meier’s USA 147 and crew Samantha Foulston moving to second place.

E.L.E., owned by Matt Braun and skippered by his son, 17-year-old Guthrie, won the J/70 class today sailing with All-American collegiate sailors Patrick Shanahan calling tactics, and Hannah Steadman trimming main. The all-amateur team’s attitude coming into the weekend was to “Just do our best and sail our own races,” Braun says.

“Even though this was a smaller fleet than typical for the J/70s, it was a tight group of well sailed boats. This is a talent-laden fleet so it was a real thrill to sail against that kind of talent and do well. This is the last regatta for E.L.E. before I put her on the market, so what a way to go out with a ‘mic drop,’ and the win.”

Eamonn Delisser’s J/24 Main Squeeze kept its perfect scoreline of first-place finishes over the three days.

Ravi Parent flew away with the A Class Catamaran Foiling class win against the 13-boat foiling fleet, keeping a perfect scoreline of eight first-place finishes over the three days across the varying wind conditions. While this is his first official regatta in the A Cat since he jumped in one year ago, he’s been training hard at his home base in Sarasota over the past year, and in true “A Catter” form, he’s already into his second boat.

The 24-year-old is looking toward next year’s A Class Catamaran World Championship, scheduled for St. Petersburg in April 2022, and this weekend proved valuable to test out new techniques he’s been working on. Parent’s ambitions stretch much further than next year’s worlds, however. He says the boat is the perfect cross-training platform to help achieve his 2024 Olympics goal to qualify in the foiling Nacra 17 class. Cam Farrah, who also races an A Cat foiler and finished this weekend in eighth place, has the same ambitions.

“The A Cat foiling class is undergoing a really rapid evolution,” Parent says, which is one reason there’s been a strong uptick of new sailors joining the fleet. “As the boats continue to evolve, they’re getting more efficient, faster and even higher performance. It’s driving the athleticism of the class and that’s appealing to a lot of the younger sailors. I know that’s a big draw for me. But, I also see myself in this class long term. I really like being on the frontline of development.”

In the 24-boat A Cat Classics fleet, Woody Cope edged out Ben Hall with two race wins today to win the fleet.

The St. Pete-based Martin 243 TackTick, owned by Michael Siedlecki and driven by Andrew Cheney earned top honors in PHRF 1. At 24 feet, TackTick is the smallest boat in the nine-boat fleet consisting primarily of 30- to 40-foot boats, which Cheney said put a premium on them having good starts and getting to the windward mark in good position. “Otherwise, there are a lot of wind shadows with the bigger boats.”

He said yesterday’s windier conditions helped the team to secure its overall first place, but Cheney admitted the team got lucky when the race committee abandoned the intended fourth race that day due to major wind shifts. “That was our one awful start,” he said. “We jumped the gun and were over early, and then got caught on the wrong side of every wind shift. We dropped way back into the ‘B fleet’, so we got very lucky they called off that one.”

In PHRF 2, the J/105 Breezin Bayou owned by Mitcham Stephen won the five-boat fleet; and in PHRF 3 Paul Latour’s S2 7.9 Scratch earned the win.

The post Schwarting and Co. Earn St. Pete NOOD Overall appeared first on Sailing World.

Between catamaran sailboats flying by the St. Pete Pier and doublehanded teams taking off around Tampa Bay for the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race, St. Petersburg delivered another stellar day of sailboat racing for all the teams competing in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta St. Petersburg.

Former St. Petersburg YC commodore Harvey Ford and co-owner Tom Mistele took line honors on board their J/112e Silver Surfer for the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race. “Just perfect conditions out there today,” says Ford. “Clear skies and 15 to 18 knots from northeast. Tom mostly drove the boat and I scurried around to fix and adjust things.”

For the doublehanded challenge, today’s 17.5-mile course sent teams around eight navigational marks in Tampa Bay, which included a lot of close reaching and one fetch leg. Silver Surfer decided against using a spinnaker because in these conditions, according to Ford, “Getting the kite up is easy; it’s when it has to come down is when it separates the men from the disasters.”

The other J/112e dopodomani, with owner Christopher Ziballo and crew Cliff Farrah, led the majority of the race. Ford said a key moment in the race was during leg six when Ziballo and Farrah chose to tack downwind with the jib, while Ford and Mistele headed straight downwind toward the mark, going “wing on wing” with the jib. That strategy proved effective and Ford said they made up a lot of ground.

He joked that that perhaps the competitors were distracted watching them catch up, because they unfortunately made a navigational mistake and sailed past the turn marker. “We made the turn, and once they realized their error it was too late. Truly, though, hats off to them for a great race.”

Ford and Mistele had not doublehanded the boat before a month ago, and he is now sold on the format. “As a boat owner it’s glorious to only have two people to worry about with advance planning and meals, etc.,” he says. “No disrespect to my regular crew, but it is nice just being able to show up and bring your sandwich and off we go. I loved this new format of racing and will certainly do it again.”

The A Class Catamarans are the largest class in the regatta and are divided between two subdivisions: Foilers (that use hydrofoil technology and can lift out of the water), and the Classics (which still have lifting technology but more so ‘skim’ over the water).

These supercharged single-sail, single-person boats are very light, all carbon, and extremely powerful, testing the individual’s athleticism and smarts. On Circle B, they had a range of conditions between 15 knots down to six or 7 knots at times, according to Ben Hall. Hall, who’s owned 34 A Cats in his career in addition to many of the class’s trophies, is currently leading the Classic fleet.

In addition to the changing wind strength, Hall said the course provided a lot of opportunities to capitalize, or be caught. Such as in today’s third race, Hall initially got shut out at the committee boat, which he ended up hitting. “And I also hit OH (Rodgers, currently in second place overall), so I had to end up doing a circle and a half to clear myself,” Hall says. “So I went out to the right side of the course and ended up winning the race.”

He said overall the racing was tight today. “Well, except for Ravi [Parent, who is leading the foiling division]; who was just ‘gone’. He’s mastered jumping on the foils earlier than anyone else, which of course adds at least five knots of boatspeed.”

For Parent, this is the first regatta he’s officially raced his new foiling A Cat, and he’s really pleased with the performance. In the six races sailed, he’s won all of them.

In the six-boat Melges 15 fleet a battle is shaping up between new owner Marlene Plumley, with Scott Steele driving on board Bubbles, and father-son team Diego and Zack Carvajal on their charter boat USA 102, tied at 14 points after eight races. Plumley is currently leading on tiebreaker after winning the last race of today.

This is Plumley’s first racing boat, and she is loving it. She teamed up with Steele rather “serendipitously” and as the two familiarize themselves with the boat and sailing together, “we’ve improved every race,” Plumley says. “Racing has also gotten really tight; today only boat lengths separated the teams.”

It’s the Carvajal’s first time sailing together in a regatta, and according to Diego, his son Zack is “definitely the driver in the boat; I’m just along for the ride.” Zack, 17, races on his high school sailing team in South Carolina, sailing the 420s.

“There was some adrenaline this morning; getting out there it was a washing machine out there with big waves and blowing, the wind gusts probably in the 20-plus range,” Diego says. “But going upwind is Zack’s specialty and he really did well even in all that chop. We hit that windward mark in first quite a few times. It’s his first time sailing an asymmetric spinnaker so our downwinds weren’t quite as forgiving.”

In PHRF 1, Michael Siedlecki’s Tack Tick, a Martin 243 overtook the lead from Wasabi, a Farr 395, with three first-place finishes; and in PHRF 2 the J/105 Breezing Bayou owned by Michael Stephen and the J/29 Family Circus, owned by Robert Wetmore, are tied at 11 points, with Breezing Bayou leading on tiebreaker.

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

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St. Petersburg, Fla., April 2, 2021 — While a late-season cold front passed over Tampa Bay for an unexpectedly chilly start for the 120 teams competing on the first day of the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta St. Petersburg, the sailors competing in the national regatta series happily bundled up to tackle the brisk breeze and soak up the sunshine. Many of the smaller boat classes delayed racing until the strong 20-knot breeze settled down in the afternoon, but the Melges 24, J/70s and J/24s, and PHRF fleets charged ahead to start on time and capitalize on what proved to be ideal racing conditions.

Provisional Results

Eamonn Delisser and his team on the J/24 Main Squeeze started off strong with four first-place finishes. This is Delisser’s first time competing at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in the J/24 class (he’s sailed many NOODs on a different boat), and he pragmatically summed up today’s conditions as shifty. “The breeze would go left, but you could still get out of a right shift. It didn’t matter where you went because it [the breeze] was going to come back,” Delisser says. “While we don’t normally have the boat speed, we certainly had it today so I can’t argue.”

Tomorrow, says Delisser, will be a different day, however. “Truth be told,” he says, “as the day got lighter, our competition got faster….I was better in the heavy stuff; they were better in the lighter stuff.”

For John Bauman and his team on the Lightning, Raging Bull, boatspeed and conservative tactics paid dividends. “I would rather sail conservatively than pull a high-risk move,” Bauman says. “Given there are no throwouts for this event, I’m glad we played it the way we did because we ended the day with three second places. My crew [Fred Strammer and Monica Morgan], who are much better than me, wanted to be more aggressive, but I tried to hold them back a little bit.

“When it comes to sailing, I’m an idiot savant. Because I have such a great crew, it allows me to ignore everybody and just focus on the telltales and going fast. The more I can trust the crew and drive the boat, the better we are.”

While many of the teams lamented about the light-wind spots that peppered the racecourses in between much larger puffs, one team quickly adapted to capitalize on the changeable conditions.

Paul Perry, who’s calling tactics for Kevin Holmberg on board the Tampa-based Sonar Fawkes, says he noticed early on that every time there was a puff, there was a wind shift to the east. “We started scanning to see also where the holes [light spots] were that we could use strategically,” Perry says. “Since we had more than enough power, we would find the lulls in the course and use them to get back across the fleet.”

The strategy and execution is working, as the team leads PHRF 3 with three first-place finishes today. The duo have sailed together for two years and Perry says he and Kevin have established great communication between them. “Today we decided to sail our own race. Playing the fleet was secondary,” Perry says. “The majority of our success was keeping our heads out of the boat, sailing fast and not missing shifts. And it seemed to work out OK for us.”

For Gary Schwarting and his Obsession team, currently leading the Melges 24 fleet, today was about much more than racing sailboats, as he and fellow sailors paid tribute to their friend and fellow Melges 24 sailor, George Haynie, who passed away earlier this week.

“Many of the Davis Island [Florida] sailors gathered together on the water and organized a toast to George,” Schwarting says. “George was one of my best friends and he’s done more for the sport of sailing in this area than anyone I know. We sailed against each other and with each other for over 20 years in Melges 24s; he is already so missed.”

Racing resumes for the fleets at 10 a.m. tomorrow, with the addition of the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race and the Cruising World Rally fleets.

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Two new dinghy racing fleets will debut at this weekend’s 33rd edition of the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta St. Petersburg: the new Melges 15 class and the established Thistle class, which has been active since the 1940s. Also new is the addition of a daylong distance race around Tampa Bay.

The St. Petersburg NOOD traditionally kicked off North America’s only national regatta series in February, but is now taking place over the “Sunshine City’s” Spring Break, April 2 to 4. With 121 teams currently registered and an ideal weather forecast for the sailors, regatta organizers and their co-hosts at the St. Petersburg YC are expecting an exciting three days of races.

The date change benefitted the 76-year-old Thistle fleet, as the class’s traditional winter championship conflicted with the NOOD’s usual February timeframe. For 33-year-old St. Petersburg resident Kevin Bradley, the NOOD is an opportunity to race his Thistle Shred Stick, a beautifully restored wooden version of the boat, originally built in 1955. Bradley bought the boat when he was 18 years old and restored it with his father.

“It’s relatively affordable and a lot of fun to sail,” says Bradley, who recommends the Thistle for younger sailors interested in racing an inexpensive class of boat. “It’s great to drive, has a lot of sail area, and attracts big numbers at national events.”

The Thistle Class has made a concerted effort to attract younger sailors, and the strategy is working. According to Bradley, the class organization pays entry fees for skippers under the age of 26, thanks to a steady stream of donations. Of the seven Thistles entered this weekend, Bradley notes all but two skippers are younger.

With its new two-person Melges 15, which debuted in 2020, Wisconsin-based Melges Performance Sailboats is also targeting a wide range of youth and mixed teams. According to Mark Gorman, who will be racing with his 17-year-old daughter, Dylan, the Melges 15 ticks all the right boxes. Gorman had only sailed heavier keelboats before purchasing his Melges 15 and says the dinghy helps him to cross train, improving his skill set.

For Dylan Gorman, whose sailing experience is limited to crewing on the family’s J/70 keelboat, the Melges 15 gives her an opportunity to take a more active role on the boat, learning sail trim and tactics. “It perhaps prepares her for club sailing in college,” Gorman says. “It’s an awesome boat for us. To go 15 knots downwind, skipping on top of the water is a wild feeling. But even moreso, when you have a 17-year-old daughter, you take whatever moments you can get. This boat is helping us spend some time together creating memories.”

Another new feature of the 2021 NOOD Regatta series is the North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race. Driven in part by a recent demand for race-day formats that require fewer crewmembers, and the expectation of a coed distance-race medal being added to the 2024 Olympic Games, NOOD Regatta organizers, in partnership with North Sails, added the one-day race to all events on the five-event circuit. This daytime challenge, on April 3 only, will send competitors racing a variety of boats on a 10- to 20-mile course around Tampa Bay.

“North Sails is proud to partner with the NOOD Regattas to include a Doublehanded Distance Race in their 2021 events,” says Brian Janney, of North Sails. “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.”

The high-tech single-person A-Class Catamaran class, which represents the largest fleet in the St. Petersburg NOOD, has two divisions—Foiling and Classic—consisting of 14 and 25 boats, respectively. The classics are traditional catamarans while the foilers soar above the water, suspended on hydrofoils. The A-Class competitors will launch daily from Flora Wylie Park, north of the New Pier, and among them will be world-caliber sailors with their state-of-the-art catamarans on display before and after racing.

In addition to the Melges 15, Thistle and A-Class Catamaran fleets, the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta St. Petersburg features Melges 24, J/70, J/24, and Lightnings, as well as three PHRF handicap classes. At the conclusion of the regatta on Sunday, April 4, one class-winning competitor will be chosen to compete in the Helly Hansen NOOD Caribbean Championship in October in the British Virgin Islands.

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