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Fleet 23 - Lake Champlain, Vermont |
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Downtown US Tour - 2004Beasley Cup. Houston, Texas. This race is the first on the Texas circuit for the 2004 season and the Beasley family sponsors the event along with the Houston Yacht Club. The Club itself was a pretty nice place to have a race with boats coming in and having to be set up, two hoists, two mast cranes and lots of extra dock space and parking. All boats at this club and for that matter the entire area were at slips, there are no moorings.
The Houston area is home to the second largest concentration of boats in the USA, only San Diego is larger. However, not many boats leave the docks because of the heat of summer, the lack of places to go, and the Gulf of Mexico is hours and hours away. The guys from there said that in summer you don't even think about going sailing till 6:00 P.M. The water was very brackish, hardly any salt ,warm, and very BROWN. Kind of like sailing in a giant chocolate shake.
Enough of the downsides. The wind was great, 12 to 18 knots both days. The weather, well, I sailed barefoot and needed sun screen, some clouds, and 78 to 83 for temps. 27 boats came for the races, and they came from New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, other parts of Texas and VERMONT! The level of racing skill is quite good with the top 10 to 15 boats close all the time. Mr. Happy won with Flood Tip a close second. Mr. Happy was just back from the Mid Winters where they finished second.
We finished 7th , with a mostly South American crew... Juan drove, Pedro trimmed and Spanish was the language of the boat. It was like watching your favorite show in Spanish, not really knowing exactly what was said but having a good idea. When I spoke, my words would be translated and talked about in Spanish and then, I would hear" O.K. Tom" and we would tack or gybe. All spoke almost perfect English, but would revert to Spanish in the heat of the moment. Between the Spanish and boats with N.M. 3456 , T.X.7890 and CL.1234 I had no problem knowing I was in the South West.
Another observation is that there are a lot of older boats in the fleet. The Sea Scouts were using USA 6. USA 93 and USA 667 were just some of the other oldies. The set up that is allowing me to do all this, while I'm unemployed for the winter is this: We have a corporate sponsor, Cape Fear Yacht Works, that pays the entry fees, and the fees to have the boat and some rock stars moved around. We also have a sail maker, U.K. Houston, that gives us sails to use for a few races...i.e., the sails we had used in St. Pete, Tampa and Houston were sold and sent to Argentina, and a new set is in the works for the next race for Downtown, in Austin. The sails that U.K. are making are some of the best I have ever used. They are using tape drive, and laminate technology to make a great genoa. A friend, Juan Mauri, drives and he and I make up the core group at the different races. He makes the arrangements for the boat to move around and who the crew will be in the various races. I just cash in frequent flyer miles , show up, set the boat up, and race it. I also meet new sailors, and come to find out they like to drink beer, go out to dinner, and show off their club and their city, just like us.
They would ask me "Where do you sail in Vermont on little ponds and such?" I swear some wanted to ask me where Vermont was but were too embarrassed. In response to the size of our ponds, I would point to Galveston Bay and say " we don't sail on a pond this small, Lake Champlain is 113mi. long, and when we drive as far as some of you drove, we get to an ocean." Texas is big and they all think that way, they think that big only exists in Texas. Vermont, now isn't that a real small state, again I would respond with, "our lake is one of the largest bodies of water within the US and Vermont has the 6th longest coast line in the US". Now didn't that get some strange looks. In the end we are all 24 sailors and it's the same game with the same kind of people, just in a different place. Everyone is very friendly and helpful and when you go to leave, they would come over say, thanks for coming, and please come back it's fun to sail with boats from that far away. As strange as it may have been for them to sail against a Vermont boat, I wonder how many of us have ever sailed against a boat from Kansas, better still how would you like to say, you got beat by some boat from Kansas. Ahh, I dodged that bullet, and now it's time to saddle up, and head for Austin....Stay tuned....
St. Petersburg NOOD Regatta, 2004 - It was both, cold and windy, and calm and sunny......St. Pete was real good wind, lots of classes, with lots of boats, i.e. mucho Wavelength/24's.. Davis Is. and the Mid Winters only had wind 2 of 4 days, the first was windy and wild, but the NOOD was the real deal, 27 J/24s, and some of the wildest J/24 mark roundings ever, and it was not just me saying it.....we were hit and we got a 8 inch hole, but again it wasn't just us getting hit, there was a lot of it going on, and wipeouts, oh boy, were there some big boats doing that stuff, some great shots for Dr. Crash, I wish I had those Pic's....... The St Pete NOOD brought good wind, cool temp's.. The racing was very aggressive at the corners, as well as at the starts...We got hit heading into a mark rounding up wind, the likes I have never seen,..5or 6 boats stuck together in different directions, some hooked up with each others lines and floating backwards in lots of wind,...We managed to get around it and pick up some places.....The regatta was 3 days and all 3 were real good racing, there was quite a few classes with lots of boats, the most was the Melges, 24's with 34 and next the J24's with 27, we were 5th and the Z twins won, and many of the boats went on to do the mid winters...After the party on Sunday afternoon we headed for Davis Is on the other side of Tampa Bay. plenty of wind and waves made for a great 3hr rip downwind, that had a double jibe to miss a cruise ship, with, the coastguard watching...I mean really watching...The good thing was that, it was still light enough and they did not realize we had... no... running... lights..., the, last hour or so was in darkness in the shipping lanes, but it pays to sail with locals, and Genoa, what a name for a sailor, knew where she was going and, we arrived at Davis Is. and left the boat at dock ready for the Mid Winters,,,, oh, ya, we had to get our hole fixed, but that 's part of the next story...
2004 J/24 Midwinters, Davis Island. - The racing at Davis Island was good to start, it was similar to St Pete, cool and windy for one day at least, the boat Quaid was on got hit in the first race and had to head in.. They got it repaired, but not in time to get into the next 2 races...The warm air came on day two, one day early, we went to the club at 8:00 looking like we were going skiing and by 10:00 we were still on the dock, but wearing flip flops and shorts... The top 10 to 15 boats were within 10 points of each other with Geoff Moore in first with 24 pts after 3 races, he had, 2 Z flag fouls along with lots of other people... But we, could only wait for the next 2 days to race again.. The first day off ,got us some much needed rest and the chance to get the hole in the boat fixed. While in St.Pete we met this sailor on another 24 that did boat repairs and he told us that he would return for the Mid Winters and bring all his stuff to fix our boat, so the temp. patch held till the first lay day and once the races were called he went to work, it was watertight on the next morning, but we did not race, so he finished the job and we looked pretty again( less the decal). There was a brand new Italian 24 that got hit the first day and I mean hit, 18 to 20 inch hole right at the bulkhead, they had to cut some of the bulkhead away, make a new piece, and bolt it in place...they did the work themselves during the night, my repair guy said they asked him if they could borrowed stuff and advice all night long, I felt good coming in, in the morning and seeing the work done, and ready to go ,I was lucky in that regard....However there were some really nice 24's there, I have not seen so many new and well equipped 24's in one place in awhile...Alfy Merchant, Roger Voss, and a crew of guys from Lake George were camping in a van and on their boat, "Witch Way," so they were always out in the parking lot having a good time early am or late pm, the 5 of them all came in a van/camper towing the boat...the final day was dead when they sent us out ,but unlike the the others the sea breeze filled and we had 3 races in 10 to 12kts...With all the high price boats from the US and Italy, hull no. 7 won and she looked every bit her age, $4500, holes in the deck, and bulkhead, old rig, etc.. you get the picture....What does that say about the new waterlines boats...it still is, Who is on the boat, not what boat your on... 46 boats, we finished 12th and Will Wells with Chris Morgan finished 7th,and Captain Q got to race finally...It was great to have a local crew, and stay with them, but there is nothing better than hanging with your buddies from home when you are in a different place.. The boat had been delivered to ST. Petersburg by a trucker , and it was picked up sometime that afternoon after the last race in Davis Is. and it was on it's way to Houston TX. where it will await the the next regatta on March 20th and 21st at the Houston Yacht Club, which is the start of the Texas Circuit, where we hope to race till June ... Stay tuned........
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