Invasion By Santa Barbarians Successful!
(Seattle, WA - May 23) - Thirty-five teams competed in the BITBURGER J/24 North Americans hosted by Seattle's Corinthian Yacht Club. It took solid, consistent sailing to finish well in this year's event sailed on the tricky waters of Puget Sound with lots of shifty winds and plenty of current to contend with over the course of the three days of racing. The ultimate winner, Pat Toole's 3 BIG DOGS, were sailing well enough on Sunday to win over local Seattle favorite Keith Whittemore sailing TUNDRA ROSE. It was the first victory in a major regatta for "The Dogs" who sail out of Santa Barbara Yacht Club.
"It was a great day of sailing, it's our best ever," Pat said after the win on Sunday. What was the key for 3 BIG DOGS? "It wasn't our starts", Pat said, "In fact, the last start was horrible. But even when we got bad starts, we were able to duck sterns and get in phase with the wind shifts right away and sail a long, correct board. That was it." The 3 BIG DOGS finished the regatta with a total of 27 points in 10 races sailed over three days. His finishes were 3, 1, 4, 5, (15), 1, 3, 1, 5, 4. Finishing second was Keith Whittemore of Seattle and his crew on TUNDRA ROSE with 33 points, third was local Scot Milne sailing TREMENDOUS SLOUCH, fourth was Argentinean Fernando Gnozdz skippering LUCA, fifth was Mike Ingham sailing BRAIN CRAMP. What was nice to see was Japan's Hideyuki Miyagawa have his practice pay off from sailing the weekend before in the J/24 NW Regionals, they finished 8th overall!
Both Scot Milne on TREMENDOUS SLOUCH and Keith on TUNDRA ROSE were in the hunt going into the racing on Sunday. In fact, Milne and team on TREMENDOUS SLOUCH were leading going into the races on Sunday after winning all three races on Saturday. However, both teams hurt their chances by getting out of phase with the wind shifts and the current on Sunday and bombing a few races to drop out of contention. The wind Sunday was from the south and shifty at 8 to 15 knots.
Whittemore congratulated 3 BIG DOGS for their victory and said the competition was tough throughout the regatta. "At the top of the fleet, getting by people was almost impossible," he said. "You had to have a good start and go the right way, and if you didn't do that you were back a ways. The three leaders were all up and down, but the 3 DOGS guys sailed the most consistent series."Tom Niccoli, TREMENDOUS SLOUCH trimmer (rounding the mark at right), said the of the racing: "It was phenomenal. I thought we did well, but it was harder today (Sunday) to get the settings right. It was up and down and there was a lot more wave action that made it harder for us to find a groove and get settled in. The DOGS were always going the right way with great boat speed and great sailing."
Toole's previous high finishes in big J/24 regattas included a third in the 2008 North Americans in Marina Del Ray and a third in the Nationals last year on San Francisco Bay. His crew included Les Wolff (bow), Chris Stankevitz (mast), George Witter (pit), and Dale Turley (trimmer-tactician). "This yacht club and these volunteers did a spectacular job," Toole said. "It takes a lot of work to put on an event like this."
The top three finishers in the regatta win spots in the 2011 World Championships in Buenos Aires. Bitburger, one of Germany's largest brewers, which wants to expand its U.S. market share, was the title sponsor of the J/24 North American Championship. Other sponsors include Fat Bastard wine, Kvichak Marine Industries, Northwest Yachting Magazine, Quantum Sails, Cheap Diver, Shilshole Bay Marina, Skyweb Express, Harken, Team McLube, North Sails, Web 1 Marketing, CSR Marine and Seattle Yacht Club.In this picture at right during the awards ceremony- from left-to-right- regatta director Joy Okazaki, Jim Florio of Click Wholesale Distributing (representing title sponsor Bitburger Beer), the crew of 3 Big Dogs, George Witter (tactics), Les Wolff (bow), Chris Stankevitz (mast), Pat Toole (helm) and Dale Turley (trimmer), and regatta racing director John Mason. For more J/24 North Americans sailing results and information.