{"id":69747,"date":"2021-07-20T15:14:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=69747"},"modified":"2023-05-06T23:00:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T03:00:48","slug":"racing-back-to-normal-at-the-annapolis-nood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/racing-back-to-normal-at-the-annapolis-nood\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing Back to Normal at the Annapolis NOOD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"A <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The J\/111 fleet lines up for a start at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Annapolis, the class\u2019s North American Championship.<\/span>\n Paul Todd<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

When the race committee hoisted its AP-over-A on the morning of the first day of racing at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Annapolis, there was a collective sigh across the Annapolis YC\u2019s dry sail lot. Yes, everyone was anxious to go racing after a year of tiptoe racing through the pandemic, but not everyone was keen to scuff off the rust in a 30-knot gale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

So, with coffees in hand, crews tinkered and mingled with friends. A few teams eventually sneaked out to practice in the harbor, but most of Rob Ruhlman\u2019s crew went golfing instead. There was no good reason to go out and practice on their J\/111, flogging sails and crew before their big-deal North American Championship. They hadn\u2019t sailed since January, at the class\u2019s winter championship in Key West, but they\u2019d be ready, Ruhlman reasoned. Feeling ready and being ready, however, are two different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The one wrinkle they weren\u2019t prepared for was the race committee\u2019s use of a rolling three-minute starting sequence the following morning when starting signals finally got underway. The short countdown caught Ruhlman\u2019s team off guard in the morning\u2019s first race. Twenty-knot gusts only fueled the confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had trouble getting used to the three-minute-start thing,\u201d Ruhlman says. \u201cI get it in Lasers, but with 37-footers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Without a good start in this class, Ruhlman says, it\u2019s nearly impossible to get to the front. This would, of course, account for his Spaceman Spiff<\/i> being sixth (of seven boats) in the first race of the regatta. Rust in the boathandling cog of the machine didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese boats are so even, and there are all top-notch guys that travel,\u201d he says, \u201cso there\u2019s no room for mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Peter Wagner\u2019s team on Skeleton Key<\/i>, trained in the big breeze of their \u00adhometown San Francisco Bay, were \u00adconfident in the day\u2019s chaotic blow and won the first races comfortably. They were able to get off the starting line clean and control their own race, Wagner says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was pretty important because, with the shifts, things were changing quickly, and we had to be able to react to the changes as they happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

By the final race of the day, however, Ruhlman\u2019s crew was in its groove. Their score line trended upward, with a second to close the day. Skeleton Key<\/i> had its first stumble, hung out on the wrong side of a windshift and finishing fourth. \u201cWe got stuck a little too far left and couldn\u2019t quite find a shift to come back,\u201d Wagner says. \u201cOur friends on Spaceman Spiff<\/i> face-planted us at a critical moment, bouncing us back left and sealing our doom. That was a good move by them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"A <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Jose Fuentes\u2019 Etchells Caramba won six of eight races, sailing in memory of past crewmember Geoff Ewenson.<\/span>\n Paul Todd<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

That fourth also narrowed the series to mere points between the top three boats, with Spaceman Spiff<\/i> lurking in fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went home that day feeling fine,\u201d Ruhlman says, \u201cand not a single person walked out the door in the morning expecting to go out and win the day\u2014or the regatta. We weren\u2019t feeling a lot of pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Skeleton Key<\/i>, however, was perhaps feeling the pressure and got caught over early in the morning\u2019s first start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn OCS is almost impossible to overcome,\u201d Ruhlman says. \u201cIn this fleet, getting back is incredibly difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Not only did Spiff<\/i> win that one, but it won the next, inching the crew closer to the top of the mountain. \u201cWe always take it one race at a time,\u201d Ruhlman says, \u201cAnd, in fact, when we crossed the finish line in the last race [a fourth-place finish], my son said, \u2018I think we just won the North Americans.\u2019 I know he\u2019s good with math, but I said I\u2019m going to wait and see how the numbers work out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The story was similar for J.R. Maxwell and his mates on the J\/22 Scooby<\/i>. Their results after the breezy opening day were what he called \u201cconsistent\u201d in the 15-boat fleet, and after winning the next day\u2019s first two races, Scooby<\/i> was well on its way to winning the regatta. But, like Wagner\u2019s Skeleton Key<\/i>, the race committee called Maxwell\u2019s number\u2014and it took a while. Looping back to restart, they looked up the course and knew the work ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to grind back from being second to last and finished fifth in that race,\u201d Maxwell says. \u201cIt was all about staying in the puffs. It wasn\u2019t always intuitive of where that was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

A fifth in that race was good enough for the win. Sailing with Maxwell on Scooby<\/i> were Jim Schmicker and Matt Spencer (and Bryan Pryor sailing on Saturday only), and as the winner of the J\/22 class, they were also selected as the regatta\u2019s overall winners, earning a berth to compete in the Helly Hansen Caribbean NOOD Championship in October in Sunsail-provided bareboats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The J\/35s are a legacy class of the Annapolis NOOD, and while the fleet was smaller in numbers this year with only four to show, the battle at the top of the fleet was a mighty one, with Roger Lant\u2019s Abientot<\/i> winning the tiebreaker over the perennial champions of James Sagerholm\u2019s Aunt Jean<\/i>. It took everything they had, Lant says, plus a little luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cAunt Jean<\/i> is very, very fast upwind, so if you let them get away, it\u2019s a tough battle after that, so we worked on a strategy to deal with them on the starting line,\u201d Lant says. \u201cBut we carried out our plan, and it went well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

What exactly was that plan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe boat that won the start won the race,\u201d Lant says. \u201cThey were looking for space on the starting line, and we were looking to engage, so [on the first day] we engaged them fairly hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

When Aunt Jean<\/i> won the day\u2019s first two races the following morning, Lant had only one option: to win the final race. He who wins the last race wins it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew we had to control him at the start,\u201d Lant says, \u201cbut we also had to win the start and get clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

They also needed top-shelf crew work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"A <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Some crews at the Annapolis NOOD were sailing together for the first time in months, but the crew work came naturally.<\/span>\n Paul Todd<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the most fortunate skipper on the course,\u201d Lant says. \u201cI have a core crew that has been sailing together for three years, and the skills keep building, and we had some of the most fabulous crew work I\u2019ve ever seen on the boat\u2014exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Lant, of course, got his win and local bragging rights\u2014for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

On the same circle were the J\/80s, also an Annapolis NOOD legacy class. Conor Hayes and Jeff Kirchhoff\u2019s J\/80, More<\/i> Gostosa<\/i>, didn\u2019t have a stellar first day, but on the second, \u201cflawless crew work\u201d saved them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

When it\u2019s said that every point counts, Hayes would agree because one point was ultimately the difference. Having won the penultimate race, Hayes knew the points were extremely close between his team and Daniel Wittig\u2019s Turbo Sloth<\/i>, but he had no idea how close. All he could do for the last race was keep Sloth<\/i> in his wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a tough start in that last race,\u201d Hayes says. \u201cWe wanted to start at the pin but got shut out. We were able to tack out immediately onto port and were in phase. From there, it was a matter of staying in more wind. It helps to have boatspeed and a good crew to be able to get out of bad situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Similar accounts were common across the 153-boat regatta, even over on the 40-boat J\/70 line that was so thick with professionals, you could practically see dollar bills streaming behind in their wakes as pro-am teams fought tooth and nail for narrow lanes and clean air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Travis Odenbach\u2019s Honeybadger<\/i> was king for a day after the first, but the late assault came from USA 419<\/i>, with Terry Hutchinson on the tiller. Even he had to pull off a few miracles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the start of Sunday\u2019s first race, for example, Hutchinson doubted his GPS starting instrument, hesitated, and was immediately buried after the start. \u201cWe didn\u2019t trust the Velocitek,\u201d Hutchinson says. \u201cWe were poked, and I didn\u2019t pull the trigger. It was a rookie mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Hutchison? Rookie? Pshaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

With the focus of his crew, Scott Nixon, Dan Morris, Gil Hackel and Jennifer Wulf, they clawed their way back to an eighth-place finish\u2014no small feat when the flood tide was running in at full tilt. It was this comeback, Hutchinson says, that \u00adultimately won his team the regatta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how hard this racecourse is in Annapolis,\u201d Hutchinson says of the home waters he\u2019s supposed to know like the back of his hand. \u201cThe course location was hard because the current was good on the right, but there was pressure and shift on the left, so you had to balance the two. You did not want to be in the middle. In the first race, the leader came out of the right, and in the second, the leader came out of the left. Each leg was unique to itself, which kept us on our toes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Over on the J\/30 line there were 10 boats, but the battle was really between the top three\u2014Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello\u2019s Bebop<\/i>, Bruce Irvin\u2019s Shamrock<\/i>, and Tristan Keen\u2019s Infectious<\/i> Smile<\/i>. The three of them were passing ones, twos and threes like hot potatoes, but Bebop<\/i> ultimately snagged the win. \u201cMy crew had not raced together since 2019,\u201d Rutsch says, \u201cso to get back together and go out in 20 knots and not break anything was amazing. We had a killer first race\u2014with a monster lead\u2014on the first day, and that really got us going for the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Rutsch has lost track of how many times Bebop<\/i> has won the NOOD since his father bought the boat in 1983\u2014maybe 11 times\u2014but winning it never grows old. \u201cI used to say to my dad, in the \u201980s and \u201990s, \u2018Man, I hope we\u2019re still around after 25 years like the Alberg 30s.\u2019 We\u2019re still out there. They\u2019re still out there. It\u2019s a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the Alberg 30s, it was Pat Siedel\u2019s Laughing Gull<\/i> that set one of the regatta\u2019s picket fences, often finishing five minutes ahead of the fleet. \u201cWhen it was really sporty on Saturday, most of the guys were flying No. 2s and blades,\u201d Siedel says, \u201cbut we opted to reef down and go with a No. 1, and that really helped us. Plus, the guys were all over the crew work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Flawless boathandling is also what got Jose Fuentes and the Caramba<\/i> Etchells squad to the top of its fleet. Fuentes, who lives over the border in Washington, D.C., says the NOOD is his No. 1 regatta, and this one felt especially important, sailing in honor of former crewmate and local sailor Geoff Ewenson, who recently passed away. Ewenson, he says, would have been proud. \u201cI don\u2019t think we had a speed edge over the rest of the boats,\u201d Fuentes says. The big difference was the crew work. It was flawless\u2014every tack, every \u00adrounding, every jibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Making easy work of the regatta in the J\/24s was Tony Parker\u2019s Bangor Packet<\/i>. Tyler Moore\u2019s squad prevailed in the Viper 640s, and Bill Zartler\u2019s experienced team owned the 21-boat J\/105 fleet from start to finish. In the new North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race, Mike Beasely and Chris Coleman conquered the windy 20-mile racecourse to win on Beasley\u2019s GP26, Rattle N Rum<\/i>. \u03bd<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Annapolis NOOD Regatta has long been the one pure one-design extravaganza of the series, and even after the pause of the pandemic, it all seemed happily normal in the sailing capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20210720","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The Helly Hansen Annapolis NOOD sailing regatta started the Chesapeake Bay sailing season with a windy and thrilling series of races. Here's a recap of the action.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"REZ6NDAVAJB4PNPPWEXL2EHGPE","arc_website_url":"story\/racing\/racing-back-to-normal-annapolis-nood\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[1104,181,309,1582],"class_list":["post-69747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-annapolis","tag-helly-hansen-sailing-world-regatta-series","tag-helly-hansen-sailing-world-regatta-series-annapolis","tag-print-2021-summer"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}