J/24 US Midwinter Championships at Davis Island Yacht Club

by Stuart Jardine 5 Feb 2001 08:36 GMT

Photo ©: Wayne Clough

Starting with the good news, I can safely report that the UK are not far behind the US in both sailmaking and boat speed, infact I am sure that after taking into account that our sails were not new, our boat an unprofiled 1980 TPI with a bent mast and our crews average age (63) was greater than any other individual at the regatta, we didn’t do too bad.

Our crew consisted of myself, brother Ado, Bob Turner and from Louisiana, the boat owner Lewis Conger and a friend Bob Donavan, neither had done any really competitive racing since the Mid-Winters a year ago.

This year unfortunately the weather was not kind, Tampa was stuck between two weather system, resulting in some cold rain, drizzle and mist, a better description can be found on the Davis Island website from Geoff Moore. We had taken our wet weather gear and thermals which is more than many of the Yanks could boast, as a result only one of our US crew got cold.

The first problem we had to master was the huge starting line with the Committee boat in the centre. The wind was shifting some 10 to 20 degrees almost continuosly, it did not seem to matter if you were at the wrong end provided thereafter one used the shifts to advantage. Boat speed and clear air was the order of the day combined with being sensible and holding ones nerve.

Our worst finish was 12th and best 4th out of the 50 boats and we should have finished 5th overall but for an unfortunate incident in the 5th race at the weather mark. Regrettably, we were not made aware of any protest until we had been ashore at least an hour. The local protest committee regrettably had a different interpretation on rule 61 protest requirements to mine, it was a local sailor protesting !. They decided that despite two boats being within 10 ft of the protesting boat that it was not necessary for him to say protest loud enough for either of us to hear nor even inform us after the race. Once they declared the protest valid we had no chance as they were on starboard.

Despite this set back we still finished 9th overall counting the 52nd , one place better than last year, this was a no discard regatta. Had we been given the opportunity to accept a penalty we would have finished 6th overall. This was one of those unfortunate incidents that happens occasionally are are best forgotten.

The top two boats were new Waterline boats with professional helms and crews, Tim Healy and Geoff Moore from North Sails. We, on the water, were the first totally amateur crewed boat. One of our problems in the UK is that we all need to participate in bigger fleets, we lack starting practice and experience of weaving through large numbers of potentially slower boats.

Our owner at the end of the Regatta gave his boat away to a St. Petersburgh Sailing Trust, so that the young and under priveleged could enjoy the sport of sailing. He had owned the boat from new and his partners had left and he had at one time been considering sinking the boat but was persuaded otherwise. One of the Trustees is an ex UK J24 Phil Smithies “Beaujangles 4203”, sunk by a Frenchman at La Trinite, he now runs the “Black Opal” fish restaurant on the seafront at St Petersburgh, worth a visit if your’re ever over there.

Pos	Boat	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	Blind Squirrel	Tim Healy	4	1	3	2	3	1	8	22
2	Pipe Dream	Ralph Devivo	5	2	2	7	6	5	6	33
3	Twins	Waldemar Zaleski	16	10	5	1	2	8	5	47
4	Patriot	Tom Sitzmann	1	13	6	5	10	11	2	48
5	Kaleidoscope	Kris Werner	8	3	10	15	4	9	7	56
6	Racer X	Tim Ryan	33	7	9	3	9	17	3	81
7	Preparation J	Bill Icely	14	6	4	16	12	10	30	92
8	Tarheel	Peter Bream	10	25	13	10	5	12	21	96
9	More Grief	Stuart Jardine	9	4	8	12	8	7	52q	100
10	Pee Wee	Kiki Voss	6	8	1	52q	15	13	12	107
11	Blitz	A. Constants	13	5	16	11	16	16%	30%	107
12	USA 3145	Will Welles	15	12	7	52q	1	3	19	109
13	USA 5272	Jeff Gladchun	3	26	11	14%	52q	2	4	112
14	HeatSeeking	Jon Messenger	17	21	15	9	17	14	23	116
15	PayDirt	Kent Plunkett	20	24	28	20	21	4	13	130
16	Classic	James Howard, Jr.	12	32	22	8	13	19	29	135
17	Chuck Wagon	Peter Weil	2	16	12	52q	18	52q	1	153
18	Red Eye Expres	James Hunt	7	14	21	27%	37	31	22	159
19	SpockHandleIt	Nedko Vassilev	27	15	14	52q	20	22	9	159
20	Hangar	Donald De Coster	21	31	19	18	28	21	24	162
21	Anne Hannan	Anne Hannan	24	17	52q	14	27	18	14	166
22	Vincitore	Warner Monteiro	26	20	39	13	7	32	32	169
23	Ragged Edge	Thomas Turton	11	28	27	52q	23	20	11	172
24	Kohayashi	Chris Clough	47	23	20	23	14	23	26	176
25	Mad Cow	Dave German	50%	34	24	6	22	25	27	188
26	Airebornne	Bob Silverman	18	9	52q	52q	11	28	26%	196
27	Reactor	Rob Hupfield	23	33	30	24	31	16	43	200
28	DirtyWhiteBoat	David Anderson	28	27	23	52q	36	27	10	203
29	Pistarkle	Jamie Myers	25	11	37	26	29	26	52d	206
30	Witch Way	Alfie Merchant	30	19	34	22	24	29	52q	210
31	Shining Armour	William Fuller, Jr.	34	22	27%	34	19	41	36	213
32	Turn & Burn	Michael Foster	22	37	29	27	34	40	40	229
33	Energizer	Gail Rosenke	19	35	25	36	25	45	52d	237
34	Arnold	Michael Sudofsky	36	29	41%	37	33	30	39	245
35	Never Mind	Drew Robichau	35	46%	52q	19	52q	15	33	252
36	Long Shot	Jeffrey Siewert	52q	18	36	33	30	33	52d	254
37	HoSoBad	Jimmy Roland	31	38	28%	29	52q	52%	25	255
38	Mobile Home	Tim Rathbun	38	43	52q	28	40	24	31	256
39	GeronimosCaddy	David Rucker	43	42	33	52q	32	42	15	259
40	Mellow Yellow	King Purton	41	38	37	39	35	37	38	265
41	Raging Queen	William Lacher	32	52%	41	52q	42	36	18	273
42	Red Stripe	Ken Davis	48	40%	26	40	39	47	34	274
43	Sea Plane	Randy Tilly	37	45	52q	21	46	48	28	277
44	After Shock	Uri Saks	39	52q	42	35	26	44%	42	280
45	Pigs In Hiding	Lon Ethington	45	46	44	52q	43	38	17	285
46	Riptide	Nicholas Staikos	42	49	45	30	38	46	37	287
47	Flak	Bob Fox	29	50	46	31	41	39	52d	288
48	Triplicate	Joe Giurintano	49	40	43	38	44	35	41	290
49	StickLizard	Vince Somoza	50	47	35	41	45	49	35	302
50	Wahoowa	Jonathan Hagerman	44	52%	32	32	47	52%	52d	311
51	Mosh Pit	George Osborne	52%	44	40	25	52q	52%	52d	317